Operation North Pole
by Estrella123
Summary: All of your favourite characters unite to save the world from a terrible villain: the Grinch. Together, they go on a dangerous mission to North Pole to save Christmas. Only by combining forces can they prevent this terrible evil, but that proves harder that they thought. Will they brave the challenges fate has in store for them and complete their quest?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I wrote this story as a gift to a friend, and then decided to publish it online. Aïcha, thank you so much for your love of this story, and your continued support and encouragement. This is for you!**

 **Also: there are a few more characters in this story than is in the description. It's not necessary to have read or watched those; so please give this story a chance even if you haven't read those. Once upon a time is the story's main fandom, but there's also a bit of Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, the Hunger Games and Sherlock (although those last two will be written out of the story soon, so if you don't know them you can still read this story!**

Chapter 1: Introductions

I groaned as I slowly opened my eyes. I felt disoriented. Just a minute ago, I had been sitting in my living room, discussing baby names with Mary. Now, I was lying on the cold ground, face-first. I sat up slowly, peeling a few leaves off of my face. I appeared to be somewhere in a forest. Around me, I could see other people sitting on the ground. A few had already gotten up, and were walking around slowly. The first one I noticed was a young woman. Her hair was done up in a braid, and she was stalking through the forest with a bow held in her hand, an arrow already notched. I couldn't see her face from here, but I doubted she knew why we were here. She was probably as confused as I was.

"Watson?" I heard someone murmur next to me. I spun around. "Sherlock? What are you doing with that shrub?" I enquired as I recognised my comrade lying next to me on the ground. He smiled. "It's a lemon tree, my dear Watson." I wanted to tell him that that still didn't make any sense, but then I noticed the poof of purple smoke in the middle of the clearing we were in. "Look!" I shouted. My comrade jumped up and watched with me as two women materialised right were the purple smoke had been. By then, everyone else in the clearing had also noticed the two strangers who had suddenly appeared. The girl with the bow spun around and pointed her arrow at them. "Who are you?" She demanded to know. The woman closest to her rolled her eyes and flicked her wrist. The bow the girl had been holding disappeared in a puff of purple smoke. "How did she do that?" I whispered to my friend, but he appeared as confused as I was. The girl recoiled, fear passing over her face. She wasn't as brave without her weapon.

I looked more closely at the women. One of them had long blond hair, and was wearing a red leather jacket. She had her hand on the other woman's arm. The other woman had shorter, brown hair, and was wearing the power suit of a politician. I noticed two brown eyes peek out besides her elbow. "Hello, everyone." The politician lady began to speak. "We have gathered all of you here today, because we need your help. We would appreciate it if you did not try to harm us as we explain; as you have seen there's no point in trying anyway." "What do you need our help for?" A boy on the other side of the clearing shouted. His arm was curled protectively around the waist of a girl his age with long, blond hair. The brown haired woman looked absolutely peeved, as if she was not used to people interrupting her. But the blonde answered the question before the brunette could say something angry. "We need your help to save the world." She said simply. Save the world? I thought. What did she mean? A guy with unruly black hair to our right spoke up. "You're joking!" He said. The brunette rolled her eyes. "No, I'm serious." "But **I'm** Sirius!" The man standing next to the one with black hair asked. They high-fived childishly. "Now is not the time for jokes, James." The blonde interjected. The black-haired man looked only slightly regretful. "How do you know my name?" He asked curiously, clearly not scared the way the girl with the bow was. "Mr. Potter, if you could just be patient for one second and let us explain." The brunette snapped. Then a quiet voice piped up near her elbow. "Can I explain?" The brunette looked about to refuse, but the blonde touched her hand, and a sort of quiet understanding seemed to pass between them. "Alright." The brunette relented.

A young boy emerged from behind them. He looked about twelve, thirteen years old. "Hi, everyone." He began shyly. "So, like mum said, we summoned you here because we need your help to save the world. We searched across many times and many worlds, and brought you here, because you're all really good at something. And we hope you will help us, against a terrible villain." At that, the crowd started to murmur. I looked over at Sherlock, who was busy studying the crowd. He had an expression of confusion mixed with disbelief and intense concentration on his face, and it became clear to me that for once, he was as clueless as the rest of us. The boy had fallen silent, clearly unsure of what to say next. "What villain?" Someone asked. "Oh, right." The boy remembered. "The villain we need you to beat is …. The terrible Grinch." Everyone looked at each other, confused. Sherlock was still studying them. "The Grinch?" The black-haired man I now knew as James asked. "The grumpy green guy who stole Christmas?" A teenage girl with long, dark brown hair asked." I saw a suspicious look pass between the two women when she spoke. "Right." The boy said. "That one. Except now … he has a plan to steal all happiness."

Steal all happiness? How would someone do that? Was that even possible? I looked over at Sherlock. He seemed to be done studying the people around us. "So, what do you think?" I asked him quietly. "Absolute rubbish." He replied in a low voice. "They're a bunch of nutters." He seemed certain, but I doubted him somehow. "How did you explain the purple smoke, then?" I asked him. "Trickery." He said, convinced that he was, as always, right. But I was not so sure. There was something about the conviction of the three that made me wonder. But mad people could be convincing, I reminded myself. And since we had no idea where we were, and how to get out of there, we would just have to wait and see.

"Good job, Henry." The brunette said, stepping forward and patting the boy on the shoulder. "He's right. Now if you could please come up here in your respective groups, so I can introduce you to everyone." After some hesitation, the boy with the blonde haired girl at his side stepped forward.

"Hello, Mr. Jackson." The brunette said calmly. The boy seemed slightly freaked out by this casual use of his name by a woman he'd never met. The girl next to him untangled his arm from her back, and stepped forward. "Miss Chase." The brunette said with distaste. The girl raised her eyebrows, but took the boy's hand and turned around to face the crowd. "Hello, everyone. I'm Annabeth Chase, and this is my boyfriend Percy Jackson." The brunette didn't seem too happy about her role being taken over by the girl, but she let it slide. "Miss Chase and Mr. Jackson are demigods, half Greek god, half mortal." She informed everyone. "Nonsense!" My companion shouted. I was astonished that he'd managed to keep quiet for so long, seeing as he didn't seem to believe a word anyone was saying. "Ah, Mr Holmes." The brunette turned towards us with a patronising smile. "I told you he wouldn't believe." Her boy muttered. "Who are you?" Sherlock questioned them. "Oh yes, it does seem we forgot to introduce ourselves, doesn't it?" The brunette replied. "I'm Regina Mills, and this is Emma Swan." "Her fiancée." The blond piped up with a smug grin. The brunette rolled her eyes good naturedly. "And this is our son Henry. But back to the real introductions. As I said before, Miss Chase and Mr. Jackson are demigods. Miss Chase is the daughter of Athena, and Mr Jackson is the son of Poseidon. Would you care to give us a demonstration of your powers, Mr Jackson?" The boy looked over at his girlfriend, who shrugged. "They seem to know everything already, might as well show them." She told him, and he nodded.

The look of concentration on his face equalled that of Sherlock when he was on a case. He lifted his hands to the sky, and out of the ground, water rose slowly. It shimmered and shot up into the sky to form the image of a horse. The horse roared up onto its hind legs, and then the water crashed back into the ground. Astonished sounds could be heard all across the clearing. Even I opened my mouth in disbelief, but quickly snapped it shut when Sherlock looked at me like I was crazy. "Thank you." Regina said, waving them away. She clearly wasn't surprised by what she had just seen. "Mr Potter and his friends now, perhaps?" The young man shrugged and sauntered towards her, followed by the man with the long hair who was apparently called Sirius and another man that had yet to say a word. Regina nodded as the three men turned around to face the crowd. "James Potter, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin." She told everyone. "They are some of the most powerful wizards of their generation." James and Sirius grinned cockily, while Remus blushed. "Wizards?" Sherlock muttered disbelievingly. "How can anyone fall for this nonsense?" And it did indeed seem that most of the others were sceptical as well. "A demonstration of your powers, perhaps?" Regina urged. James and Sirius grabbed something out of their pockets that looked like simple wooden sticks. They waved the sticks at the ground, and shouted " _Wingardium leviosa_!" Suddenly, all of the leaves on the ground in front of them floated up into the air, causing the audience to gasp. Then, James shouted " _Incendio!"_ and the leaves burst into flames. I could see the huge grin on Henry's face, and had to admit that what the men had just done, even if it were a mere trick, was quite impressive.

James and Sirius were grinning smugly as they walked back to their place. Their slight arrogance might've annoyed me, but after all these years of living with Sherlock I had become accustomed to it. "Mr Holmes, perhaps you and your companion could come up and introduce yourself?" Sherlock rolled his eyes at me, but walked towards her anyway. I followed. Sherlock never did pass up a chance to show off. "Mr Holmes and his companion, Dr. John Watson." Regina introduced us, as we looked out towards the crowd. I could now put a name to almost every face in the clearing, except for that of the girl with the bow, who had moved towards the trees and was now standing there, watching events unfurl, ready to flee if necessary, and that of the younger girl with the long, brown hair. As I looked at her, I saw her face clearly for the first time. Her eyes burned with a strange fire, and they glittered like eels. I had no time to study the expression on her face, however, because that was when Sherlock decided to show off his amazing powers of deduction.

He turned towards the brunette, and started rattling off facts as usual. "You like your coffee black, no sugar, one milk. You haven't slept in 51 hours, although you wouldn't admit it to anyone. You injured your leg three months ago and it healed quickly. You've read several old books in the past three days. And your clearly, obviously, exaggeratedly lying." He finished. Regina looked slightly annoyed, but not at all surprised. "Sherlock Holmes, everyone. Consulting detective, and one of the best deductionists of all the realms, although that last deduction was painfully incorrect." Sherlock scoffed, as we went to stand were we had stood before.

"Miss Everdeen?" Regina called out, and I gathered she was talking to the girl in the forest. She shook her head furiously. Regina sighed. "That over there is miss Everdeen. She's extremely skilful with a bow and arrow, but as you can see, she does not trust easily." She looked at the girl pointedly. "And that, I believe, was everybody. "You've missed one!" I called out, feeling sorry for the girl with the burning eyes. Regina looked around, confused. Then, she saw her. "Henry?" She turned around to her son. They gathered together, Regina, Henry and Emma. They spoke quickly, in hushed voices. I could just barely pick out a "She shouldn't be here." Whatever crazy plan they'd come up with, it had clearly gone wrong. I looked over at the girl. She looked a tad uncomfortable, but also like she knew something the rest of us didn't. She caught my eye, and I looked away quickly. No point in getting involved with anyone here. Sherlock and I would have to figure out some way to leave as quickly as possible, and perhaps we could take her with us.

It appeared the trio had made a decision. "We'll take her with us." Regina announced, although she didn't look at all pleased about it. "Come on, introduce yourself!" Henry encouraged. It seemed he, unlike his mother, had accepted the girl as soon as the decision had been made. The girl smiled and walked over to him. "Hi!" She waved. She looked around the crowd, not as if she was seeing new people, but as if she recognised old friends. I looked at Sherlock, and he looked back at me with a look of "I'll tell you later." I was curious what he'd have to say. The girl puzzled me.

"I'm Aïcha." She said. "Just normal. Not a wizard." She said, looking at Sirius, Remus and James. "Not a genius, either." She said, glancing over at Sherlock." I knew how she felt. Living in Sherlock's shadow had made me all too familiar with feeling plain. "But I'm gonna help in any way I can. Operation "Save the World" is on!" She turned to Henry for a high-five, and he high-fived her back, looking confused. The girl just grinned and walked back to where she'd stood before.

 **So, that was the first chapter, everyone! I hope you enjoyed it. Tell me what you think!**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 Escape Plan

"Right." Regina said, eyebrows raised. "I suppose it's time to get this show on the road." Emma nodded her agreement, and took over from Regina. She clapped her hands. "So, here's the plan. Well, at least the Grinch's plan." She corrected herself. "We still have to figure out a plan to counter-attack." Regina looked over at her, clearly unhappy to admit she had so little control over the situation. "The Grinch is planning to take the last bit of magic from the world." Sherlock scoffed. "And how's he gonna do that?" James yelled. Regina sighed, opening her mouth to say something, but Emma cut her off. "Good question." She asked, looking at Regina pointedly. Regina rolled her eyes. "He's going to steal Christmas." At that, the supposed wizards huffed out a laugh, clearly not impressed. Emma sighed.

"And how exactly is he gonna do that, sweetheart?" Sirius asked arrogantly, an eyebrow raised. Regina glared at him. Emma put a comforting hand on her hip. "We don't know. That's the problem." "Is there anything you do know?" Sherlock called out. "You haven't exactly thought through this stupid prank, have you?" Regina looked more exasperated by the minute. "For the last time, Mr Holmes, this is not a joke. Now, as long as you continue to think so, please keep your mouth shut. Don't speak until you have something useful to say. We summoned you here because we need your help, but if you're not planning to, you might as well leave." Regina said impatiently. Sherlock looked about to give a sarcastic reply, but I tugged on his sleeve. "Sherlock, it's not worth it." I told him in a low voice. "We'll wait until they take us somewhere where we can find the way out, and then we'll leave. Until then, you had better just follow her advice." Sherlock looked annoyed, but did as I said. I breathed out a sigh of relief. We would just slip away at an unguarded moment; it would be best if Sherlock didn't draw too much attention to us until then. Who knew what these crazy people were capable of.

"To answer your previous question," Emma continued calmly, ignoring the conversation that had just taken place, "We do actually know a couple of things. First of all, the Grinch has set up his home base on the North Pole." At that, snickers could be heard. I looked over at the pretend 'demigods'. They'd been awfully quiet up until now. The blonde, Annabeth, seemed to be seriously considering what we were being told, but her boyfriend was taking it much less seriously. At the last statement, he downright laughed, looking at his girlfriend with an expression that clearly said "Can you believe these guys?" I suspected that would have been his exact words, had he opened his mouth to say them.

Henry wore a strange look of disappointment, as if he had thought everyone would have accepted the nonsense story. The kid didn't seem that young anymore, so I found it strange that he seemed to so wholeheartedly believe the story these two women were spinning. But I supposed if they were his mums, they could've easily brainwashed the poor kid. Emma continued, as if oblivious to the reaction her statement had had. "Second of all, the prophecy-" She stopped abruptly, as if having said too much. I rolled my eyes. Prophecy? About a cartoon character trying to steal Christmas? How could they possibly have come up with this idea? Regina looked at Emma angrily, while Henry observed Aïcha. I turned around to look at her too.

She wore a strange, content expression, and her eyes sparkled with something akin to mirth. Somehow, I got the impression that she was enjoying this immensely. I wondered why she seemed to be completely buying into this story, and why she didn't seem at all worried about getting out of here. "Anyway, the prophecy states that we need people from all the different realms to stop the Grinch from enacting his evil plan." Emma said, deciding to just carry on. "Why us?" Percy asked. Emma looked over at Henry. "Well, you've got him to thank for that." She said, pointing to her son. Henry grinned bashfully. "I figured if I picked out the best people from all the different stories, then we'd have one kick-ass team!" "Language, young man." His brunette mum scolded, but my mind had gone elsewhere.

Stories? What did the kid mean by that? There weren't any stories about us, as far as I knew. Everyone else looked similarly confused. Then, I noticed Aïcha's expression. She was grinning knowingly, as if she found our confusion funny. I saw Henry glance at her curiously. "Enough for today." Regina said abruptly. She looked at the rapidly darkening sky. "Thanks to your pointless discussions, it's too late to go anywhere now. You've wasted all our time with blabbering." At that, she looked over to Sherlock pointedly, who seemed to be ignoring her. "We might as well make camp for the night." Emma said. Regina nodded, and in a puff of purple smoke, five tents appeared. I had to admit, this trick was impressive. I was sure the big tents hadn't been there before, but they couldn't have just appeared from thin air.

Everyone walked over to a tent, as if simultaneously deciding to just give in to the madness for one night. There didn't seem to be much we could do about our situation anyway. I walked over to a tent at the edge of the clearing, together with Sherlock. "Miss Everdeen, you can share a tent with Aïcha." I heard Regina say. "No thanks." The hostile girl yelled from the edge of the forest. "I'll just sleep on the forest ground." "As you wish." Regina replied, clearly not having any patience for the girl.

In the privacy of our tent, Sherlock and I once more discussed our escape plan. We decided that as soon as we were somewhere populated, we would flee. We would find our way to the public transport, and from there, we would figure out how to get back to London. Luckily, Sherlock had his wallet on him, so we would be able to buy ourselves airplane tickets if necessary. The American accent of our "captors" made us suspect that we were not in Great Britain anymore.

Having decided so, Sherlock and I laid ourselves to rest. However, I was woken by a strange sound in the middle of the night. My companion also seemed awake. "Watson, look up and tell me what you see." He said. "I see a fantastic panorama of countless of stars." I replied, finding his question slightly odd. "And what does that tell you?" He asked. I thought long and hard about the answer required from me, and then replied:

"Astronomically, it suggests to me that if there are billions of other galaxies that have roughly similar stellar population densities as represented by my view, that, potentially, trillions of planets may be associated with such a galactic and, therefore, stellar population. Allowing for similar chemical distribution throughout the cosmos it may be reasonably implied that life-and possibly intelligent life-may well fill the universe. Meteorologically, the blackness of the sky and the crispness of the stellar images tells me that there is low humidity and stable air and therefore we are most likely to enjoy a beautiful day tomorrow. Why? - What does it tell you, Sherlock?" "Someone stole our tent.'

I stood up and looked around the clearing. It did indeed appear that someone had stolen our tent. The bottom was still there, but the top seemed to have been torn off forcefully. All of the other tents seemed intact. I heard Sherlock get up too. "What do you suppose we do?" I asked. "Wake up the others?" Sherlock scoffed. "Hardly. Unless you want to be told our tent was stolen by the Grinch." I laughed halfheartedly, too tired to think about the crazy events of the day before. I was still half waiting to wake up from a dream, to find I had dozed off on the couch. "We could go looking for the tent, if you want." Sherlock suggested. He didn't seem to be his usual decisive, controlling self, which was odd. "We don't have a flashlight." I reminded him. I sighed. I was too tired for this. "Let's just go back to sleep." I suggested, and he complied.

When I woke up the next morning, I was still tired. The hard forest floor hadn't exactly been comfortable, and my dreams had been plagued by strange wizards, and all the magical creatures from all the adventure movies I'd ever seen as a child. I was angry at myself for letting everything get to me like that. There were real things to worry about. How to get away from these crazy people, for starters. And I'd developed a new worry, too. Whatever way these crazy people had dragged me here, they had to have done something to Mary, too. She wouldn't have given up without a fight. I worried for her, and for our unborn child. I had to get home soon, I decided.

No one else seemed well rested, either. I suspected Emma and Regina had stayed up all night, discussing their crazy plans. I scolded myself for not having thought of that earlier. If only I'd heard what they'd said, I would have been able to figure out their plan. They had to take us to a city eventually, if they wanted to take us to the North Pole. James and Sirius seemed quite jolly. I'd overheard James say to Lupin that they'd better just tag along. The teenagers seemed up for an adventure. I sighed. How easy it would've been, to do this with the carefreeness of a teenager!

Aïcha seemed surprised to see everyone was still there when she woke up. She seemed downright happy; a grin never left her face. I saw her chatting to Henry. She didn't just seem to view this as an adventure; there was something that made it seem as if she actually believed everything being said. Katniss showed her face in the morning, still as distant as the day before. Like us, she must've thought that right now her best chance was to stick with the group, if she wanted to find her way out of the forest. Percy and Annabeth talked mainly amongst themselves, and I could see that after talking privately, they were both seriously considering what we'd been told. How did Emma and Regina find such easily manipulated teenagers? Perhaps they were taken from a mental health institution. That would explain a lot.

Regina made breakfast appear in a puff of purple smoke. This trick of hers was definitely growing old. And breakfast wasn't any good, either. Everyone got two slices of dried out bread. As we were eating breakfast on the ground, Katniss appeared again. "What have you done to Peeta?" She demanded, in an angry voice. It seemed this was the question she'd been dying to ask. "Like the bread, you mean?" Sirius asked, confused. That only seemed to make her angrier. "He's okay, I promise." Henry told Katniss. She seemed unsatisfied with this response, but taking it out on a child seemed to be too much even for her.

As we finished up our breakfast, a piece of the plan was finally revealed to us. "When we're all done eating, we're going to walk through the forest to the road, and then we'll cross the town line. Then, we're going to find our way to Boston." My ears perked up at that. Boston? That was quite a ways from London, to say the least. How had they managed to transport us across the Ocean, without us noticing? But I quickly gave up my contemplation in exchange for another conclusion. Boston was a large city, and we'd surely manage to get away from the group once we were there. From there, we'd go to the airport and take a plane back to London. With any luck, I could be home with Mary in a few days. I almost smiled at that. But first, we had to survive travelling to Boston with these crazy people.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 On The Way

 **A/N: As you can see, I've made a point of view switch. If this annoys you; I promise it won't happen again. Writing from John's perspective just wasn't really working out for me.**

Aïcha's Point of View

When I woke up, I'd been sure it had all been one big, crazy dream. It was impossible, anyway. These characters were just fictional, nothing more. It had been a great dream, but it was time to wake up now. I groaned as I remembered I had a Latin test today. I opened my eyes slowly, trying to make the wonderful dream last. I looked around, expecting the familiar walls of my bedroom. Instead, I saw the dark blue cotton walls of a tent. I sat up abruptly. Could it be true? Could I actually be right here, in the woods of Storybrooke, with all my favourite characters? It seemed way, way too good to be true.

I opened the tent, and crawled out. The woods were exactly as they had been last night, the five tents standing in a casual circle. I jumped up and down and let out an excited sound. I couldn't believe it! This was happening, it really was happening! I was here with all my favourite characters, on a mission to save the world. In the back of my mind there was a vague worry about my family, but it was overshadowed by my immense excitement. I jumped up and down some more, just because I could. All the stories are true! I thought. "Duh, of course they are!" A small voice in the back of my mind said.

I heard the zip of another tent being opened, and quickly stopped my excited jumping. I saw a blonde head peek out. It was Annabeth. I looked over at her, and waved excitedly. She looked at me strangely, but waved back anyway. I went back into my tent to wait for everyone to wake up, so I could be excited without anyone finding it weird. They were here! Emma, Regina and Henry. Henry was so nice in person! Regina was a bit scary, though. And Katniss was being so incredibly guarded and withdrawn. I could understand her, though. To wake up in a strange new world, with no idea what happened, would be especially awful for someone who had been through as much as she had.

During breakfast (which was much less good than I'd hoped for, but still couldn't do anything to stop my excitement) Emma told us what the plan was. Well, at least the start. It didn't seem that they had figured out much of it yet. And then that strange talk of a prophecy… I couldn't remember much mention of prophecies on the show. We'd just go to Boston, and from there we'd just wing it. We had a dream team, really, so we'd be fine. Two demigods, three wizards, two women with magic, and a genius.. And then there was me. It seemed that I'd gotten there by accident. Luckily, no one was sending me home, because I wouldn't miss this adventure for the world! Christmas combined with all of my favourite characters? Nothing could beat that.

Regina poofed the tents away after breakfast. The top of John and Sherlock's tent had been ripped away, but there was no time to dwell on that. After all, we had a world to save. I followed Regina and Emma as they walked out of the forest, towards the town line. I looked at the forest that I had only previously seen on tv, and swore I could recognise certain trees. My grin, which hadn't really left my face since we'd woken up, widened. It was a pity we had to hurry, or I would've visited Storybrooke. After a few minutes of walking through the forest, Henry came to walk next to me. We'd chatted a little the previous evening, but we hadn't really talked about the current situation.

"Good morning, Henry!" I said cheerily. "Good morning." He replied. "You seem happy." He noted. I shrugged. "Just excited." "Aren't you worried? We don't know anything, and we don't have a plan." He pointed out. "Well, heroes always win." I told him, grinning. He looked at me strangely. "That's what I always say." "I know." I told him, grinning. "How would you know that?" "Well, they're not the only ones who didn't know there were stories about them." I said, pointing behind us in the general direction of all the characters. Henry caught on quickly. "Wait, what?" He said, with a mix of hesitation and excitement. "You're saying there are stories about us?" I nodded, still grinning. "A television show." I told him. He laughed, now excited as well.

"So, you already know a ton about me." He noted. "Only good things." I told him, smiling. "Well, tell me something about you then." He said. "Okay." I agreed happily. "But first, you tell me more about the plan." "What do you want to know?" He asked. "Let's start with how you're planning to get us to Boston." I decided. "I'll come up with more questions later." "My mom parked the beetle, the cruiser and my other mom's car at the town line. We'll have to leave the cars in Boston, though." I nodded, satisfied with this answer.

"Your turn to ask the questions." I told Henry. It was strange, talking to someone I felt like I already knew. It had always seemed impossible, meeting fictional characters. I laughed at the absurdity. I'd spent so much time with them in their worlds, but they didn't know me. I thanked my lucky stars that by some mistake I'd found my way here, to Storybrooke.

Henry and I talked until we arrived at the road. I told him about my life back at home. He seemed curious about my completely ordinary life, and I realised that he had never experienced normality, growing up in a magical town. But after this trip, my life couldn't be called ordinary anymore, either. I didn't know what would happen after this trip was over, but I'd always have the memories to remind me of how special life can be. We talked about stories, as well. Henry was secretly just as big a nerd as I was; we were both incredibly excited to be meeting our favourite fictional characters.

When we got to the cars, we encountered a small problem. We had three cars, but just two drivers. Emma and Regina would both obviously drive a car, but that left one more. To my surprise, Watson volunteered. Neither he nor Sherlock seemed to be believing much of what we were being told, and I suspected they were just eager to get to a town. Katniss refused to get into a car at first. I tried to comfort her, but I couldn't very well reveal to her just how much I knew about her life. Eventually, realising she had no other option, she gave in and got into a car. Henry made sure he and I were in the same car. We took the cruiser, with Emma driving, and Percy and Annabeth joined us.

I sat in the back seat, next to Annabeth. Every once in a while, Henry and I would exchange an excited glance. I was dying to talk to Percy and Annabeth, but I didn't know how to start. Luckily, Emma provided enough conversation for all of us. "So you're demigods, huh?" Emma said, glancing in the rear-view mirror. "Yes, ma'am." Percy replied politely. After that, Henry and I quizzed them until they were sick of answering our questions. Percy seemed happy to talk to us, but Annabeth was slightly suspicious. Both Henry and I were working really hard not to let on we already knew so much about them; but we were so excited it was almost impossible.

After the first hour, Emma turned on the radio, and the conversation became sporadic. We got to Boston in a few hours, and parked our cars in the garage. "Let's go eat lunch." Emma decided, and we were all glad. Everyone was hungry, and breakfast had been sparse. We went to a small diner, and ordered lunch. I got a huge stack of pancakes with Nutella. The diner was full of Christmas decorations, and it fuelled my already happy mood.

"Time for battle plans." Henry announced. Regina shushed him. We were a strange enough group as it was, without drawing attention to ourselves. None of us looked particularly awake; having slept in a tent. "We need supplies." I announced. "None of us had any time to pack supplies, since you poofed us here." I said pointedly. It was quickly agreed that we had to get ourselves to a shopping mall to buy clothes and other various supplies. "Let's take a plane to Alaska after that." Emma suggested. I looked over at Percy quickly, remembering. "Um, that's not the best idea." He said. "Why not?" Regina asked, irked. "Well, I'm not exactly on good terms with the god of the sky." He said awkwardly. "In fact, I remember him saying explicitly that if I ever were to enter his realm again, he'd shoot me out of the sky." "Well then, that's out of the question." Regina decided. "But that complicates things quite a bit. Does anyone have any other suggestions?" "We could travel by boat." Percy suggested. "That's not ideal." Emma hesitated. "We don't really have any other choice, though." Regina pointed out. "I'm not exactly excited about being stuck on a boat, but it is faster than over land." And so it was agreed that we would travel by boat. That was still a bit tricky though; there wasn't exactly a ferry to the North Pole.

At the shopping mall, I went a bit overboard. They just had so much more clothes in the US! I bought two adorable Christmas sweaters; I decided that they were quite fitting for the quest we were about to go on. Henry, noticing my selection, grabbed himself an awful snowman sweater. I grinned at him and gave him a thumbs up.

After everyone was done getting the supplies they needed, Regina decided we should buy some major provisions as well, since we'd be stuck on a ship for who knows how long. It was the fifteenth of December, so we had just ten days to complete our mission. Now that the initial excitement had worn of (although only slightly) I was starting to get some doubts about the absolute lack of any plan. I trusted Emma and Regina, but they didn't seem to have any idea what they were doing.

We bought enough provisions for our little team for at least a week. I convinced Henry to sneak in some Christmas snacks and decorations. After all, we were on a mission to save Christmas, so a little Christmas spirit couldn't hurt.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 God of the Sea

When we were done shopping, we went back to the garage where we'd left the cars to pick up Katniss, but she refused to come with us. Regina sighed, aggravated. "There's no point in taking her." Regina told Emma in a hushed voice. Emma nodded. "It'll be okay. We don't need her." Emma reassured her. "But how will we get her back to where she came from? You know I don't have any magic outside of Storybrooke." Now Emma sighed, too. Henry, like me, had clearly been listening in. "Why don't you let her take the train? From there, she can get back to Storybrooke through the woods. Belle will figure something out." He said. Regina looked at him disapprovingly for eavesdropping, but Emma didn't seem to care. "Good idea, kid." She said, patting him on the back. Henry grinned proudly.

And so we got Katniss to the train station, and on the next train back to Maine. I was a little disappointed that she was leaving so quickly. She was an incredible, kick-ass female character, that I had always admired for her strength and resilience. But I understood that she would not at all be comfortable, suddenly in a new world. And besides, I doubted archery would be our key to defeating the Grinch.

After we'd left the train station where we'd dropped her off, we noticed two others were missing as well. Regina sighed defeatedly. Sherlock had clearly not been taking things seriously, but he was incredibly smart. And Watson was a doctor. I suspected that sooner or later, we'd need one of those on our crazy adventure. But at least that left us without anyone who'd offer up resistance.

Henry seemed to be taking the desertion of these three fictional characters especially badly. I could understand that he felt responsible, since he'd been the one to pick them out. "Are you up for a little game?" I asked, trying to cheer him up. "Maybe later." He said dejectedly. "You're no fun!" I told him, and walked off. His sullenness was not good for my previously excellent mood.

"So, how do we get to a ship?" I asked Emma and Regina, trying to take everyone's minds off of the current situation. Regina didn't seem at all pleased with my intervention. She stared me down, and in her eyes I saw that last, remaining spark of the Evil Queen. I cowered in fear. "Hey." Emma reprimanded Regina, tapping her cheek. "The girl's got a point." "Fine." Regina huffed. "We don't really know yet." Emma told me, and I barely refrained from rolling my eyes. They _really_ hadn't thought this through!

"I might know a way." Percy spoke up. Annabeth squeezed his hand reassuringly. "I could ask my dad." "Your dad? What are you, nine?" James scoffed. Regina glared at him. He held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "His father is the god of the sea, you mutt!" Regina snapped at him. Sirius raised his eyebrows, and I realised that even without Sherlock and Katniss here, it would be very difficult to get everyone to work together.

"Good idea, Percy." Emma praised. Percy shrugged. "What do you need to talk to him?" "Well, some sea would be good." Percy said, grinning. We made our way to the docks, my grin back on my face. I would be meeting the god of the sea! I skipped along next to Henry, who was still sulking. "Cheer up!" I said, poking his side. "We're meeting Poseidon!" I added in an excited whisper. When I still got no reaction, I proceeded to tickle his sides. That finally coaxed a smile out of him. "So, you finally ready to play that game?" I asked. Henry nodded after some deliberation. "What game is it?" He asked, finally a bit curious. I grinned wickedly. "Guess the fictional character."

We played the game all the way to the docks, and by the time we got there, Henry was finally cheerful again. I still couldn't stop grinning, either. Meeting fictional characters was cool, but this, this was a deity we were talking about! I was so hyped up by the time we got to the docks, I couldn't stop jumping up and down. And so, I got a nasty shock of disappointment when we got to the edge of the water, and Percy proceeded to walk in by himself. I must have visibly deflated, because Henry patted my back awkwardly.

We stood there at the water's edge for what felt like hours, but was probably just mere minutes. I was so focused on the water, that I immediately noticed it when two heads appeared instead of one. I perked up. "Henry, look!" I said, nudging him. He looked out at the water, and I could tell from his expression he noticed it too. We exchanged excited grins, as a man with a tank top and Bermuda shorts got out of the water. He looked exactly the way I had imagined him from the description in the books. He looked strong, his face a bit wrinkled, but also with a hint of kindness to it. But his eyes? I could never have prepared for what they looked like. They looked exactly like the sea; dark and light, playful and dangerous. I could see storms brewing at the back of his eyes.

They reached the shore at the same time, walking out of the sea. Logically, I knew neither of them would be wet; but it was something else entirely to see two men, fully dressed, walk out of the sea without a drop of water on them. As Poseidon walked towards us, I knelt instinctively. Henry followed my lead, clearly feeling the same awe at seeing a god. None of the others knelt; I suspected they were too proud to do such a thing. Poseidon nodded at us in acknowledgement, and we got up. "It's an honour to meet you, My Lord." I said, the awe clear in my voice. Poseidon smiled kindly at me, but I knew he had no idea of who I was. He went over to talk to Regina and Emma, Percy and Annabeth following.

They stood like that for a while, discussing, until I finally saw Poseidon nod as he shook hands with both of the women. He walked back into the sea after that. I looked over at Henry with an expression that clearly said "Wow!". So far, this was proving to be a much greater adventure than I could have hoped. We gathered around Emma and Regina, all eager to hear what the outcome of the conversation was. I could see that Sirius, James and Remus were all suitably impressed. Whatever they'd thought before, they were taking the situation a lot more seriously now. Why was it so difficult for all of these people to believe? After all, they were wizards, and demigods! How could anything still surprise them?

"Poseidon said he'd have a ship ready for us by 2 o'clock." Regina announced. I noticed she was the one who usually announced any actual plans they'd made, while Emma took it upon herself to ask for suggestions. I was curious about the ship. I hoped it would be comfortable, not a sailboat or something of the sort. I didn't feel like spending days stuck on a wreck like the Jolly Roger. I suddenly got an idea. "Argo 3!" I whispered to Henry, and he laughed. And so we'd informally dubbed our ship. We couldn't tell anyone else, because it would have made Percy and Annabeth suspicious, but it was a fun little inside joke.

I saw Emma glance at us curiously as we giggled together, but she didn't pay us much attention. After all, she had more important issues to worry about. We waited at a little seafood café by the docks until it was almost two, then lugged all of our luggage over to the docks. At two o'clock on the dot, a boat came cruising in. It wasn't a big container ship, but it wasn't a manky sailing boat, either. It looked like the boat I'd rented on a holiday with my parents once; but bigger. I was glad. There would be running water, a proper bathroom, and maybe even a tv. Sure, I wanted to go on an adventure, but I didn't much feel like giving up the comfort of my regular life.

We loaded all of our luggage onto the boat, then set about exploring it first. There were five cabins, which was exactly enough for all of us. Remus agreed to share with Henry; and neither of them looked too upset about it. It was decided that Percy was the captain of our makeshift crew; he was by far the only one with any experience of steering a boat, and he could control the sea if necessary. Annabeth was in charge of the maps. Since we didn't really have any idea of the Grinch's exact location, we decided to just head North until we figured something out.

By four o'clock we were finally all settled in; and we decided to make use of the remaining daylight to at least travel a little ways North. Henry and I went to the lounge of the ship; since everyone else was busy somewhere else, we had it all to ourselves, and could take up an entire couch per person. "So, are you nervous yet?" Henry asked, as he got us both a bowl of crisps. "Maybe a little." I admitted. "I mean, there really isn't any plan at all, is there?" Henry shook his head. "It will be okay, though." He said with conviction. "We've got the best fictional characters out there, and-" "Heroes always win." I finished for him, smiling. He grinned back, and we sat on the couch in comfortable silence for a while, chewing on our snacks.

After a while, Annabeth came to join us. She was quiet at first, but then she started asking more and more questions. I knew she was naturally curious, but I also suspected she was using the well-known tactic of finding out the parents' thoughts through their children. But Henry was too old and too smart to fall into her trap; and besides, he had nothing to hide. Regina and Emma had nothing to hide.

After a while, Annabeth went back to Percy, and we were left to ourselves. I groaned. "Are quests always this slow?" I asked Henry. He laughed. "Pretty much, yeah. There's a lot of waiting around, and then there's one moment of action. And usually my moms won't even let me join in on any of the fighting. It's actually pretty boring, usually." Well, that wasn't exactly encouraging. But I knew I shouldn't be complaining; I was on a boat with a bunch of fictional characters and was on a Christmas mission! Still, there was a lot of time to pass before we reached North Pole. Henry and I eventually decided to play the guessing game again, and we played it for a long time, while the sky outside slowly darkened.

Regina decided to cook dinner, saying healthy food was important even when you were on a mission. I knew she was doing it mostly for Henry, but she let the rest of us eat it too. I was glad; I didn't feel like surviving on dry cereal. Sirius started complaining about how the house elves food was much better, but Regina quickly silenced him with a deathly glare. I knew Sirius was just being annoying; I didn't think the eating standard at the house of Black was particularly good.

After dinner, Regina sent Henry to bed, and so I decided to go as well. I didn't want to be too tired the next day. I had my own cabin, and I fell asleep to the lull of the waves quite quickly. I'd expected to be up for hours, wishing in vain for sleep to come, and speculating about the adventure that was to come, but my night sleeping in a tent had tired me out more than I'd realised.

 **So, that's the fourth chapter done! I hope you like the story so far. Reviews are appreciated!**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 Hippogriff

When I woke up the next morning, the boat was still moving. I wondered whether Percy had just travelled all night, or whether he'd docked the boat somewhere for the night and I had just woken up really late. I got up to go to the lounge, and found Henry there, alone. "Good morning!" I said cheerily. "You're a morning person." He noted. I grinned. "Why be grumpy when being excited is so much more fun?" He rolled his eyes. "Have you had breakfast yet?" He shook his head. "Mom told me to just find myself something in the cupboard." I nodded, and set about finding myself some food. I didn't usually have much appetite for breakfast, but today I'd woken up hungry. I supposed going on a life-endangering quest would do that to you. Not that there'd been much life-endangering going on, anyway.

To my surprise, I found a ton of different fruit in the cupboard. I was glad. I didn't really like anything too heavy for breakfast, and besides, fruit was healthy. I set about cutting up some of the fruit. "Would you like some fruit salad as well?" I asked Henry. "Fruit salad?" He said, with and expression of mild disgust. "Fine, don't." I told him. "It's just, some people like to eat healthy." Henry rolled his eyes. "Wait, do you have mangoes?" I checked the cupboard. "We do, actually." I told him. He grinned. "Well, then I would actually like some fruit salad. Mango is my favourite fruit!" "Really? Mine too!" I said way too excitedly, then turned around to the counter in embarrassment at my sudden outburst.

Right as I was sliding the cut-up fruit into a bowl, I heard some commotion outside. I opened the door to the deck, just in time to hear Percy yell: "Monster!" I rushed out of the door, Henry right behind me, breakfast all but forgotten. We ran towards the front of the ship, and there it was. A huge creature, the size of a minivan, was flying though the sky towards us. "Duck!" I yelled at Henry, and we swerved just in time to avoid being hit by its claws. It landed on the deck behind us smoothly. "Help!" I yelled out. My first instinct had been to run outside, but now that we were facing the huge, scary monster, I realised I didn't actually have any weapons. Nor did I know how to fight.

Luckily, Annabeth came barrelling around the corner, holding her knife. I could see it was made of Celestial bronze. A thought flashed through my mind. What if the creature wasn't a Greek monster? Then celestial bronze wouldn't harm it. We'd be defenceless. I cowered in fear at the thought. I could see Henry was freaking out as well.

Just as Annabeth raised her knife to slash the monster from behind, Henry yelled out: "Wait!" Annabeth stopped short of the creatures feathers, and it looked over at her, noticing her. Annabeth glared at Henry, angry he'd taken the element of surprise from her. But Henry didn't seem to notice. Instead, he was waving at the creature frantically. "Look at him, Aïcha! Look at him!" He yelled. I opened my eyes wider, realising the fear had made me squint. I hadn't gotten a good look at the monster before. Now that I was looking at it, I quickly noticed its beak and feathers, as well as its hoofs and tail. The head of an eagle, the behind of a horse… "It's a hippogriff!" I yelled out, catching on. Henry stopped waving, glad I'd realised.

But before I knew it, Henry was walking towards it slowly. I could see the expression on Annabeth's face. She clearly thought Henry was crazy, but didn't want to say anything, in fear of startling the creature into attacking. The hippogriff was looking at Henry curiously. "Bow!" I whispered, suddenly remembering the detail about the creatures. Henry did as I said. For one tense moment, the creature studied Henry intently, until it bent its front legs and bowed back. I let out a sigh of relief.

Henry straightened out of the bow slowly, then walked over to the creature hesitantly. He petted it, and the creature nudged his hand gently with its beak. I smiled gently. "Let's name him Buckbeak." Henry suggested. The hippogriff let out a happy screech. I grinned. "Great idea!" I looked over at Annabeth, who was looking at us with an expression of awe and confusion. I grinned. We'd have to explain everything to her later, but now it was time for something else.

"My turn." I told Henry, and he obliged, stepping aside. I walked over to the creature slowly, then bowed. It studied me for longer than it had studied Henry, and a bad feeling started brewing in the pit of my stomach. What if he could tell I wasn't as brave as Henry? But then, he finally bowed back. The feeling I got at that was something I'd never felt before. Somehow, I felt it deep in my bones, this acceptance by such an ancient creature. It was as if he'd told me that I _could_ do it, that I _did_ belong here, that I was good enough. It erased all of my doubts about the upcoming quest. I walked over to him and petted him, like Henry had done before.

I spent the rest of the day in a haze of awe. I'd obviously realised that we were going on a magical quest, but meeting a magical creature, touching it, that was something else entirely. I could tell that Henry felt it too, although to a lesser extent; he'd experienced magic and met magical creatures before. By lunch, we'd explained everything to Emma and Regina, who took it upon themselves to explain it to the others.

"It seems our team has found another member." Emma spoke on the deck where everyone was gathered. I saw the three wizards look confused; they were the only ones who hadn't heard anything about the newcomer. Regina cut them off before they had a chance to ask any questions, however. "He's a hippogriff, a magical creature, part eagle, part horse." She told everyone. "His name is Buckbeak." Henry added. I didn't see any sign of recognition on James' and Sirius' face, but Remus seemed to have heard of hippogriffs.

"Buckbeak!" Henry called out. "Come meet some new friends!" We hadn't yet introduced him to anyone else, as we were waiting until everyone was together. One by one, Buckbeak was introduced to each person. To some, he bowed more quickly than to others. Regina was clearly avoiding having to bow to him. At first I thought it was because she was too proud to kneel before anyone, but then I saw her face. Everyone else had already gone. "Come on, mom!" Henry urged his adoptive mother. She squeezed his hand, and then walked over slowly to Buckbeak. Because of where I stood, I was the only one who could see her face.

As she walked closer to the creature, I could see her mask of confidence crumble slowly. It was replaced by a look of uncertainty that I was sure I'd never seen on the Evil Queen's face before. "Bow, baby!" Emma shouted, and I could see the look of embarrassment flash across Regina's face, but she bowed anyway. Buckbeak scraped his hoof, then cocked his head to the side. I watched Regina's face intently. She looked more fearful by the minute. Then, I realised something. She wasn't afraid of the creature itself; she was afraid it wouldn't accept her! I felt a pang of sorrow for this woman in my heart. She'd done so much to be a better person; she was on a mission to save the world, for heaven's sake. And still, she was afraid she wasn't good enough; not good enough to be one of us. One of the heroes.

Just as she looked about to lose it, Buckbeak finally bowed back to her. She walked over to pet him, and I saw her wipe away a few tears. I hoped that Buckbeak's acknowledgement of her would do the same for her as it had done for me. I still felt more confident, even though our encounter had happened hours ago.

To everyone's surprise, Remus volunteered to take care of Buckbeak. I knew it shouldn't really have surprised me that much; I knew he liked magical creatures. But he'd kept to himself so much on this trip, I'd doubted he would actually claim a task within the group. I envied him that; something to keep him occupied. I hated just sitting around, feeling like I couldn't add anything to the group, unable to help in any way. And I was afraid that was the truth, because when the time for a fight came, of what use was I to anyone, really? I resolved to talk to Annabeth, ask her to teach me a few things about fighting.

The rest of the day passed quite uneventfully. I screwed up the courage to talk to Annabeth, and she seemed willing enough to teach me. And that's where I found myself the next morning; in the lounge with Annabeth. I hadn't told Henry about what I was doing; I didn't want to admit my doubts to him. He'd already experienced so much, and I had only three days ago realised that all of the stories were actually true.

"Very good!" Annabeth praised. She was quite impressed with my weaponry knowledge. After all, I was just a mere mortal from the normal world. But actually using the weapons was a different story. I was clumsy with a sword, and my aim with a knife was absolute rubbish. Annabeth was patient, after all, all of the campers were inexperienced when they first arrived to camp. I had less patience with myself. I wanted to learn this, and fast. I knew it was irrational. My mum had always told me how learning to do something really well took 10.000 hours of practice, and I only realised how true that was just now, attempting to wield these weapons.

"Let's go back to theory for a while." Annabeth suggested, and I nodded gratefully. She told me about different weapons, and according to her, I was picking everything up really quickly. I knew what an incredible compliment that was; coming from a daughter of Athena. We were just discussing the trident, when a really strange feeling hit me. It was as if someone had forcibly sucked out all of the happiness from me. I could tell by her expression that Annabeth felt it too. "Let's go find out what that was." Annabeth decided, putting an end to our lesson for the time being.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 Christmas spirit

We walked over to the front deck, were most of our shipmates had already gathered. Emma was clutching at Regina's arm, a shattered expression on her face. Regina was trying to comfort her. She seemed less affected than Emma was. "What happened?" I asked. I couldn't see Henry anywhere. What if something had happened to him? "Nothing." Regina said, sharply. "She means we don't know." Emma said, compensating for her lover's abruptness. Regina patted Emma's arm lovingly, silently telling her not to speak. I realised then that Regina was just stressed out, and that her anger was a defence mechanism. I tried not to let it get to me, but it was still a bit hurtful.

A few seconds later, Henry walked onto the deck. I sighed in relief. He was fine. Everybody else was already on the deck; so nothing had actually happened to anyone. We all relaxed slightly, but there was a universal feeling of unhappiness that seemed to come from nowhere. I looked around. Everyone seemed confused, and feeling slightly down. My mood had deflated as well. I looked down at my cheery Christmas jumper. Why on earth had I decided to wear that? What was so special about Christmas, anyway?

"What was that?" Annabeth finally voiced the question that had been on everyone's minds. "It was as if the happiness was sucked away all at once." James said, not his usually confident self at that moment either. "No matter." Regina said firmly. "We're on a mission to save Christmas from being stolen by the Grinch." "Why are we doing _that_?" Sirius said, at the same time that Percy said: "Why would we want to do that?" Realisation seemed to dawn on Emma. She mumbled something, but the only thing I could pick out was "Christmas." "What was that, dear?" Regina said, turning to Emma.

"The Grinch. It's too late. He's already done it. He's stolen Christmas." Annabeth seemed to be the first to get it. She nodded slowly, thinking. "That's what we felt. It was the Christmas spirit leaving us." Slowly, other people started to catch on. As I started to realise it, part of my unhappiness went away. "The Christmas spirit is the last bit of belief on the earth." Henry added. "Of course, that's how he's planning to take the magic away!" I said. Henry smiled, glad I understood what he meant. "When the Christmas spirit is gone, the last bit of magic will leave the world. Who knows what will happen." He said. "Nothing good, I expect." Regina added.

"That's only more reason to continue our quest. The faster we get there, the more chance we have of preventing that from happening. My guess is he hasn't yet destroyed the Christmas spirit. I fear that would be much, much worse. So we'll just have to hurry, and do as we planned." At that, she took Emma's hand, and they walked of. I expected Emma needed to do some recovering. "Did she seriously just say "do as we planned"?" Sirius asked incredulously. James laughed. "There didn't seem to be much of a plan." He said. "We'll figure something out." Henry said resolutely, defending his moms.

I tugged on Henry's arm so he would follow me. I didn't feel like standing around in the cold with such pessimists. "Where are we going?" Henry questioned, as we passed the lounge. "My cabin." I said. I shrugged. "I just don't really feel like being around anyone else right now." I sat down on my bed, cross-legged, and Henry said on the empty bed opposite me. "So you think it's true?" I asked him. "That the Grinch's got the Christmas spirit, I mean." Henry nodded. "It's the best explanation I can think of." "But why? Does he just really hate Christmas, or something?"

"Could be." Henry said, but I suspected it was just because he didn't want to hurt my feelings. "What do you think?" I asked him knowingly. He grinned. It was funny how I felt like I already knew him so well. Talking to him was like talking to someone I'd known for years. There was just a hint of awkwardness between us, which was probably because he was a boy and I was a girl. I rolled my eyes at myself. That was such a stupid stereotype! Boys and girls could be just friends. I had plenty of friends that were boys myself. It could also be because although I felt I'd known Henry forever, he'd only met me days ago. That was something I kept forgetting.

"I think he's stealing Christmas to destroy the world." When I looked at him confusedly, he continued. "You know how we felt the happiness leave us? If that were to happen, but much worse, everyone would become incredibly unhappy. Everyone would turn evil. There'd be no hope, and so many bad things would be happening, we can't even imagine. It would be an awful situation, in short." I nodded. "I get that. Take away the happiness, and people will destroy each other. What I don't get, is how is that tied to Christmas?" I could see in Henry's eyes that he had a theory about this. "Tell me." I urged. I really was curious to find out.

"Well, as I said before, Christmas is the last bit of magic left in the normal world. Little kids' belief in Christmas, in Santa Claus, is so strong, that it is its own kind of magic. But that's not all." He paused. I nodded eagerly for him to continue. "Even when people stop believing, Christmas is still a really happy time for most. And so if you take that away, you take away a symbol of their happiness. And if you take a symbol, well, then you take happiness itself. Anyway, that's just my theory." He shrugged, embarrassed. I shook my head. "Not, it's brilliant!" I said, meaning it. He grinned shyly. "You really think that?" He said, glancing at me. "Well, of course! I couldn't have ever come up with that." "Thanks." He grinned.

"Oh, I've got one more question." I said, remembering. "What happened to your mom? Emma, I mean? She looked so shaken." "It's probably because of her difficult past. She's suffered more than most people. You know that." He told me. I nodded, realising. "And so when the happiness left, she had much worse memories and feelings to fall back on." I said, catching on to his train of thought. He nodded, happy I got it. "But wait, why isn't it bad for Regina too? After all, she had a pretty terrible past." I asked. Henry nodded. "I thought about that too. Then I realised, they don't really celebrate Christmas in the Enchanted Forest. So for her, happiness is much less tied to Christmas." I nodded, impressed. "You've really thought this through, haven't you?" "Well, it's the least I can do, since I'm never allowed in on the action." He said, a bit resentfully.

I reached over to his side to give him a playful push. "Hey, at least you get to live in a magical town. And you've even been to the Enchanted Forest! My life is just plain boring." "But you're on an adventure now." Henry pointed out. "I know. And let's make the best of it." I said, jumping up off my bed. "Race you to the steering cabin!" I yelled, as I bolted for the door.

We spent the rest of the afternoon with Percy and Annabeth. Percy tried to teach us how to steer the boat. It wasn't that difficult, really, once you got the hang of it. While he was teaching us, Annabeth entertained us with stories of past monsters fought. Henry and I were impressed and shocked by all of her tales. It appeared the books didn't even cover half of the fights!

In the evening, we docked the ship at St. John's. We were making good progress, but we needed to do at least one more supply run before we were on our way to North Pole. I was excited to go to a Canadian town. I'd been to the US before on a holiday trip, but I'd never been to Canada. It was probably magical, this time of the year. Magical, and cold. That was something else I'd have to buy on our supply run. When we went shopping in Boston, I'd forgotten slightly to think of the practicalities. I had three Christmas sweaters, but no winter coat. I would freeze if I didn't get one soon.

After dinner, I sat in the lounge with Henry, chatting about the day ahead of us. "Have you ever been to Canada?" I asked him. He shook his head. "The number of places I've been can be counted on one hand." He said, and proceeded to do so. "I lived in Storybrooke all my life. Then there's the time I went to get Emma from Boston. Also, that one trip to New York. And the Enchanted Forest, of course." He shrugged. "Not that many places. Where have you been to?" He asked me.

I grinned. I hadn't had much adventure, but I'd done a lot of travelling. "I've lived on three different continents." I told him. "I've been to so many countries, I don't even remember all of them." His eyes were wide. "Wow, that sounds amazing." I laughed. "It was pretty cool. Hey, I've got an idea. What do you say we go and explore St. John's tomorrow?" His eyes lit up. "You think we could?" "Well, as long as your moms think it's okay." "I'll convince them." He said, and he ran off towards their cabin to go ask them immediately. I smiled at his excitement. I was glad I'd suggested the trip. I just hoped Regina and Emma would let us. After all, we were old enough to look after ourselves, and if we went while they were getting supplies, we wouldn't even lose any extra time.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7 Saint John's

I woke up way too early the next morning, despite having fallen asleep late. My excitement had woken me up so early, but I at night I hadn't been able to fall asleep. The conversation I'd overheard between Henry, Emma and Regina had been running through my mind all night.

After waiting in the lounge for ten minutes, I decided to go over and ask Henry how his conversation with his parents had gone. When I came into the corridor, I could hear that they were still talking. I debated going back to my own room, but I couldn't resist the temptation of finding out what they were saying. And so I leaned on the wall, just around the corner from Emma and Regina's room. "You heard your mother." Regina said, not sounding too happy about it. "You can go." "Thanks, mom!" I heard Henry say. I grinned and could just suppress an excited squeak that would have given me away. We were allowed to go! I was so incredibly excited.

"What's the deal with you and Aïcha, anyway?" Emma asked curiously. "Mom!" Henry said embarrassedly. "Yes, Henry, what is going on between the two of you?" Regina joined the questioning. Henry groaned, but relented. "We're just friends." "Yeah, right!" Emma scoffed. "We like some of the same stuff." "And what might that be?" Emma asked teasingly. "Each other?" I heard some scrambling, and imagined that Henry had playfully punched Emma at that last statement. I was surprised that no scolding from Regina could be heard. "No-o!" Henry said fervently. "We like some of the same books. She knows Percy Jackson, and The Hunger Games. And she watches a television show-"

Henry halted abruptly, and I realised he'd almost told them about Once Upon a Time by accident. "What television show?" Regina asked curiously. "I've forgotten the name." Henry lied quickly. "Do you like her?" Regina asked. "Mom!" Henry complained again. "Just answer the question." Regina said firmly, and I was a bit annoyed at the fact that she was forcing him to answer such personal questions. But my annoyance was quickly forgotten when I heard Henry's answer. "Maybe." He said honestly. "Good for you!' Emma said, at the same time that Regina said: "Aren't you a bit young for that?" I could practically hear Emma roll her eyes. "The kid's fourteen, Regina. He can look after himself." Regina started to protest, but Emma quickly cut her off. "Go to bed, kid. Your mom and I will talk about this later." I had just enough time to scramble back into the lounge as Henry left his parents' room.

The conversation had been playing through my mind all night. Henry might like me. I wasn't sure what that meant. It was flattering to be liked, but what if I didn't like him back? I hadn't really liked anyone before – at least not like-like. I liked talking to Henry and spending time with him, but did that mean I wanted a relationship with him? I wasn't sure.

I forced myself to stop thinking about it. I got up, put on one of my Christmas sweaters, and went to the kitchen to make everyone pancakes for breakfast, just to take my mind off of things. I resolved to just enjoy the day; I didn't think there'd be much more time for fun on our journey.

Henry and I were walking into the town centre. We'd already split up from the group; they'd gone to one of the large shopping malls. "St John's is considered to be Northern America's Oldest City." Henry educated me, as we walked through the outskirts of the town. "It's the twentieth biggest town in Canada." He told me. I laughed. "How many of these facts did you memorise?" He grinned. "Those were the only ones. I read them on a plaque on the way here." He confessed. I laughed even harder.

"So, where do you want to go?" I asked him. I myself had no idea; I didn't really know anything about the town. "I was thinking we could go to Signal Hill, and then get hot chocolate at a café on the way back to the boat." Henry suggested. I was impressed. He'd really done his research. Then a thought hit me. What if he thought it was a date? Visiting some sight, then going for a drink… That sounded like date stuff. I just shrugged it off, and reminded myself of my resolution to just enjoy the day. "Sounds like a plan." I told Henry. "Lead the way."

"So, what's Signal Hill?" I asked him, as we walked in what I assumed was the right direction. "It's a hill overlooking the town." Henry told me. "Since it's up high and above the town, there used to be forts and everything." I wasn't really that interested in the forts, but the view would probably be great. I regretted not having taken my camera. I would probably have been able to take some really great pictures up there. At least I had my phone.

"It's a really popular tourist attraction, apparently. Almost all of the tourists that visit St John's go to signal tower. Or so the tourist guide said." Henry told me. "You got a tourist guide?" I asked. I never got a tourist guide anywhere, I always just relied on my phone. But it was cute that he'd gone to all that trouble.

We walked up a path towards the hill, through a beautiful, grassy landscape. "It's so pretty here." I told Henry. He grinned. "Wait till you see the view." He promised. We climbed the hill all the way up. There was an interesting stone building on the top of the hill, which Henry told me was called Cabot Tower. We went inside the tower first, to the visitor's centre. There were several exhibitions there, which Henry studied intently. I glanced at them half-heartedly. I wished I would find things like that interesting, but they couldn't hold my attention for long. "Want to go outside and look at the view?" Henry asked me, probably sensing my slight boredom. "Great!" I said enthusiastically.

I gasped as we exited the building. The view was even more beautiful than anything I could have ever imagined. On my left was the hillside, ending in the Atlantic Ocean. The sky was clear, so I could see a long way to that side. But the right side was even more beautiful. The picturesque town could be seen all the way from here, and it was so adorable! I whipped out my phone to take a picture. Then I got an idea. "Henry?" I called out. He looked up from where he was studying one of the informational plaques that were scattered across the platform. I gestured for him to come over, and he did.

"Let's take a picture." I suggested. "Okay!" Henry said. We walked over to the other side, that looked out onto the ocean. I felt it was more appropriate, seeing the trip we were on to the North Pole. I snapped a quick picture of the two of us with the great view as a backdrop. We walked around the platform some more, enjoying the view. "It's probably time to leave." Henry said reluctantly, looking at his watch. I nodded, sighing. I took one last look at the panorama, then walked back to the path with him.

As we were walking back towards the town, it suddenly started snowing. "Snow!" I yelled excitedly. I spun in a circle, my head towards the sky. When I stopped spinning, I looked at Henry. He was standing there, snowflakes falling onto his hair, laughing at me. "Oh, come on!" I yelled at him. "It's snowing! Isn't it beautiful?" I didn't wait for an answer. Instead, I grabbed his hand and started running. He was a bit reluctant, but after a while he started enjoying himself.

And there we were, running through the beautiful natural landscape, snow falling everywhere around us. I laughed with glee as we skipped along, swinging our hands between us. I couldn't remember feeling this happy at any time in my life. For the moment, all of our troubles were forgotten. Our potentially dangerous mission, my doubts and insecurities, nothing was on our minds. We were just a boy and a girl, running through the snow together. I wished that the moment would never end.

We stayed that way all the way back into town, holding hands as we ran through the snow. I had no idea where we were going, but Henry's hand was there to lightly guide me. We ducked into a small alley, just off the main road, and stopped at the cosiest, most adorable café I had ever seen. We walked through the door and a merry bell chimed. We went inside, still holding hands, laughing happily. The girl behind the bar smiled at us as we entered. "Table for two?" She asked, and Henry nodded. She guided us to a small table at the back of the café and took our coats. "You guys make such a cute couple!" She told us, smiling, before she walked away. Henry and I blushed, but neither of us denied it.

The waitress' comment had made us uncomfortable for a second. Our easy banter had ceased, and there was a slight barrier between us that I hadn't even realised had ever been there, before it had fallen away during our moment in the snow. "I'll go order drinks." Henry said awkwardly, and I just nodded. He got up, and went to order.

After a few minutes, he returned with two steaming cups of hot chocolate. I wrapped my cold hands around it gratefully. "I got you some cinnamon on top. I hope that's okay." Henry said. "It's-" "Your favourite." I said, smiling. "I know." There was less awkwardness between us now, and I could feel it disappear slowly. "You know, I actually tried hot chocolate with cinnamon for the first time after I saw the episode where you and your mother drank it in the diner." I told him amiably.

He smiled, and I could see there was a lot behind that smile. I suspected he was quite happy that he had had such an influence on my life even before we met. "Isn't it strange for you that I know so much about you, even though we've never met?" I asked him curiously. Henry seemed to think about it, and I was grateful that he was taking this question I'd posed so casually as seriously as I actually meant it. The question had been on my mind for days. "A little." He admitted honestly. "It's very strange that you know all of these things about me, and I'm worried that maybe I'm not making such a good impression on you as I otherwise could have, if you hadn't seen all of the stupid things I did as a child." I opened my mouth to interrupt, to say that everyone did stupid things as a child, and that, anyway, he had always been a good kid, but Henry held up his hand.

"I'm not finished, Miss Impatient." He joked, and I shut my mouth. He smiled and continued. "Those things do bother me sometimes. But then, you're such a nice person." I blushed at that, but he wasn't done complimenting me. "I don't even have time to think about all those things, because you're just there, and we're goofing off, and having fun, and talking about all of our favourite things, and I have so much fun with you, that everything else just stops mattering." He blushed, and it seemed he was done talking. I was incredibly touched by his speech. No one had ever said such wonderful things to me. Henry wasn't saying I was pretty, or some other shallow reason like that, but he enjoyed spending time with me. Wasn't that the best thing you could ever say to another person?

I leaned towards him, too overcome with emotion so speak. Henry looked at me, as I considered whether I was really going to do this. I was conflicted. I really liked Henry. Liked him as more than a friend, maybe. But who knew if I was ever going to see him again after this mission? I looked into Henry's eyes, really looked, and I saw it then. Saw that he _knew_ what I was thinking. Knew what I was going through internally. And that did it. I leaned more closely towards him, and then my lips were on his.

His eyes widened in surprise, and I realised he hadn't _really_ let himself hope, hope that there could be something between us, that I might like him, that I would really kiss him. But I did. We both pulled back soon, the kiss sloppy and strange. I had never kissed someone before, so I hadn't been sure what to expect. I hadn't really suspected it to be so strange, or so sloppy. I suspected it would get better the more we practised. And I planned to make good of our time together.

I looked up at Henry, and saw his questioning look. I grinned at him in reassurance, and he grinned back, relieved. I could feel it then, could feel the start of something new between us. I wasn't sure what it was, but I was ready to find out.

"You know, I always thought you were a great person." I told him as we were walking back to the boat. I wanted to make the best of our time in this little bubble. Too soon, we'd be back on the boat, and the mission would feel only too real again. Henry looked at me sidelong. "Yeah?" I nodded. "At first, you were this cute little kid, and then you grew up to be this brave young man. You always just kept your head in all of those difficult situations, and I felt so sorry for you every time your moms wouldn't let you join in." Henry laughed, then spun me around in the snow. "Thank you. That makes me feel better, even if you don't really mean any of it. You thought I was super annoying, and you're just making it up to comfort me." He said teasingly. I punched his chest playfully. "No!" I insisted. "I really do mean it! Ask any of my friends back home." "You know that's impossible." Henry pointed out, but then he realised something. "Wait, you talked to your friends about me?" He asked curiously. I nodded, laughing as I remembered. "Yeah. Me and one of my friends were massive fans of the show, and we would always talk about it at school every time a new episode aired. It drove my other friends crazy!" Henry laughed with me at that. It was true. I couldn't wait to tell my friend about this crazy adventure! Assuming I made it out alive, of course.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 When Christmas Comes to Town

We got to the boat just as the others were loading the last of the supplies onto the boat. I was glad that we weren't late; I would have felt guilty if we hadn't been back in time. I was only on this mission by accident, so it would've been awful if I were to mess it up for everyone. No one except for Emma and Regina payed us much attention when we got back. We'd stopped holding hands a little ways before we got to the boat; I wasn't at all ready for his moms' questioning.

When we had all gone inside, I caught Emma looking at us intently. She didn't look angry. If anything she looked a bit sad. I suspected that it was from the fact that her little boy was growing up so quickly. She must've felt something had changed during our little trip. I felt it too. Now that I'd admitted my feelings for Henry, it was as if they'd intensified. I felt butterflies in my stomach every time I looked at him; then felt stupid about it. Now was the absolute worst time for me to be a lovesick teenager. After all, I was on a dangerous mission, an adventure with all of my favourite characters. I would not spend this time fantasizing about some boy, even if it was one of said favourite characters.

Ten minutes later, the boat was finally really and truly underway. For the first time, the reality of our dangerous quest seemed to actually hit me. It suddenly felt real, and I found myself nauseous with worry. Usually, I would've gone to my room to suffer by myself. But for the first time, I didn't want to. Wallowing wouldn't do me any good. So instead, I went to look for Henry. It had only been a little while since we'd split up, but it seemed every moment spent apart was painful for me. I sighed at that. How quickly had I become dependent on some boy? But I went over to him anyway.

"Hey." I said, after I'd knocked on his cabin. Remus wasn't there. "Hey." He replied. "Couldn't stay away from me, could you?" He teased. "Not really, no." I replied honestly. He patted the bed next to him, and after some hesitation, I went to sit down next to him. "What's wrong?" He asked me knowingly. I turned my head towards him. "How did you know?" "Your ears look different when your upset." I looked at him disbelievingly. He rolled his eyes. "Alright. In the six days that I've known you, you haven't said a single word that sounded so depressed as the hey you just said." I knew that was probably true. My excitement had been inexhaustible, but it was gone now. In its stead there was only fear and worry.

"I'm worried about the quest." I confessed. Henry raised one hand hesitantly, then stroked my hair. It was such a comforting feeling, that all of my doubts just slipped out of my mouth. "I haven't ever fought anyone before. I don't have any magic, and I'm not smart either. I can't help anyone. I can't do anything!" I said in frustration. I had expected Henry to have some sort of speech ready, to tell me everything would be fine. I really didn't feel like hearing any of that right now. But instead, all he said was: "I know." And his voice was so quiet, I immediately realised that Henry himself had his fair share of doubts. I fell into his arms, glad to have found someone who understood. As it turned out, Henry wasn't always so sure as he seemed to be. I liked that he made an effort anyway, but I liked even more that he was just honest with me.

"I know just the thing to cheer you up." Henry said after a while. I lifted my head from his shoulder. "Yeah?" He nodded. "We're going to bake gingerbread cookies!" I jumped up in excitement. I had scarcely forgotten all of my doubts, but I was ready to try and have a good time anyway. Moping wouldn't do me any good.

And so we found ourselves in the small kitchen of the boat. We'd picked up two cookie cutters at a little baking store in town; a snowflake and a gingerbread man. I'd also bought myself a red Christmas apron with a cute reindeer pattern on it, that was perfect for the occasion.

Henry spread out the flour on the counter so we could roll the dough. At the last moment, he turned towards me and swiped a floury finger over my nose. "Oh!" I exclaimed. "It's on, Mr Mills." Henry grinned, and jumped out of my reach quickly as I dipped my finger in the flour sack and walked towards him threateningly. I finally managed to catch him and repay the favour by drawing two floury lines on his face. I was bent over, my hand on my knees, laughing, when Regina came walking in.

I froze. "What are the two of you doing here?" She asked, a hint of anger in her voice. "Baking gingerbread cookies." Henry replied smoothly. "And does that require you to throw an inordinate amount of flour on the floor?" She asked. Henry shook his head, abashed. "We were just having a little fun." "Well, I expect the kitchen to be spotless when you're done." Regina said threateningly as she walked out the door. I let out a relieved sigh when she was gone.

"Your mom scares me." I confessed to Henry. "She means well." He defended her. "I know." I said. "She was my favourite character on the show, actually. I really admired her for her strength, that she went ahead and made an effort to change, and then she did. But in person, well, she can be a bit forceful." Henry laughed at that. "I know what you mean. You get used to it." "I hope so." I said, grinning. And then I realised what that meant.

Getting used to Henry's mom would mean that I would spend a lot of time with Henry. And I wanted to; I knew that now. But it could never be that easy. Henry lived in Storybrooke, and I, well, I lived on another continent. I sighed. "Let's go make those cookies!" I suggested, and Henry agreed happily.

We'd rolled out the dough and had cut out the first cookies with our adorable cookie cutter, when Henry suddenly seemed to remember something. "Oh!" He exclaimed. "I'll be right back!" He said, as he dashed towards his cabin. He returned with an iPod and a portable speaker. "You can't bake Christmas cookies without Christmas music." He said by way of explanation. He turned on the music, and I heard the first notes of my favourite Christmas song.

"When Christmas comes to town!" I exclaimed. "From the Polar Express!" "You know this song?" Henry asked. "Duh! It's my favourite!" "Really? It's my favourite too!" We laughed together. Henry suddenly walked the other way, then walked over to me again. "May I have this dance, Milady?" He said comically. "You may." I replied, grinning. I took his hand, and we danced around the little kitchen. Neither of us had any actual dancing experience, so we just improvised. It didn't matter, though. The song was perfect, and I was here with the only boy who had ever made my heart beat faster.

By the end of the song, we were both singing along at the top of our lungs, not caring if we were singing out of tune. As the children in the song sang the last "When Christmas comes to town", Henry leaned in towards me and kissed me. The kiss was already slightly better, but I broke it of quickly anyway. "What would your mom think if she were to walk in on us now?" I asked teasingly. "I don't care." Henry said boldly, and I laughed. "Let's go finish those cookies."

The rest of the time passed quickly, and before I knew it, it was the twenty third of December. I had made good use of my time, spending most of it with Henry. We did fun Christmas things together, but that wasn't all. Now that Henry and I were in something of a relationship (neither of us had really labelled it, but we were more than just friends) and I had found the courage to tell him about my doubts, I'd also found the courage to tell him about my lessons with Annabeth. Henry was, predictably, enthusiastic about learning to use weaponry. And so we got Annabeth to train the both of us.

Learning about the weaponry definitely made me feel more prepared for the upcoming fight, but I was still unsure. But there was little more I could do now, I thought, as I saw the ice float in front of us. Henry and I were standing at the front of the boat, and from here, we could see the snow covered plain that was the North Pole. Our boat had been cutting through the ice until we got to the point where the ice would be walkable, which couldn't be more than an hour away.

I shuddered, and it was more from nerves and fear than from the cold, which was brutal. Henry wrapped his arms around me anyway, and we stayed that way for a long time, standing at the front of the boat, watching the sun set on the ice in front of us. It couldn't be more than one o'clock in the afternoon, and the sky was already darkening. The darkness would not work to our advantage, although it might work to the Grinch's. Luckily, we had plenty of flashlights, even those that you attached to the top of your head so you wouldn't have to hold them with your hands.

When the boat stopped moving, we went inside to join the others. It was time to make battle plans. "Hello, everyone." Regina said, like she had said that very first time we'd all been together. That moment felt like it had been ages ago, but it had only been eight days. Stuck on this ship together, we'd grown closer quickly, and even Regina's voice held more warmth towards everyone now.

"We don't know the Grinch's exact location." Emma spoke. "All we know is that he is somewhere here, but it's going to be hard to find him. The North Pole is big, and for all we know the Grinch is hiding behind a magical barrier. Since none of us can use magic here, a tracking spell or something of the sort won't be possible. We're going to have to rely on wits and number." She looked to Annabeth when she spoke about wits, and I knew that Annabeth should be our battle strategic, since she was, after all, the daughter of Athena.

"Numbers?" Annabeth spoke, the battle strategic that had been dormant rising to the surface. "For all we know, the Grinch's got a whole army out there." "Excellent point." Emma told her. "We'll just have to scout the surroundings, to see what we're up against, and then devise a strategy."

"So basically, we're just going to go out there and walk around the North Pole until we happen to find something?" Sirius summed it up. Regina glared at him. Those two really didn't get along well. "Well, we're going to do it just a tad more smartly than that." Emma spoke calmly. She wasn't as easily provoked as her girlfriend. "We have a map of the North Pole, divided into squares. We're going to search each square, then cross it off on the map so we know which parts we have covered." That actually seemed like a smart strategy. But how would we get around? After all, the whole North Pole was covered in snow.

Sirius, as usual, voiced my question. He was just one of those people you could rely on to ask the question that was on everyone's minds. I was glad; it meant I didn't have to. "How are we going to get around? As far as I can see, there is a lot of snow out there. I don't suppose you had the presence of mind to bring a snow scooter?" He asked. I rolled my eyes. You could rely on him to voice your questions, but it did mean that he was the one to phrase them, and that didn't always turn out the way I would've asked the question.

"You're right, we didn't think of that. But we all have legs, so we're just going to walk." Emma told him, thereby ending the conversation. "Alright, folks. Time to get dressed for a trek through the snow. We have a lot of ground to cover, and not much time."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9 Hole in the Ice

I climbed down from the boat by a rope ladder; right behind Henry. I was wearing a big winter coat, on top of all three of my Christmas sweaters. They were warm, and besides, we'd need all the Christmas spirit we could get. I was wearing gloves, warm socks and a hat, but the cold was still shocking. The wind blew across my face sharply, stinging my eyes and drying out my lips. It found its way inside my clothes, making me shiver. I'd never felt cold like this; and I wondered how I would survive this kind of weather all day.

I hoped we'd be back at the boat by nightfall. One way or another, we'd have to be. If we found the Grinch and fought him, we'd still have to return to the boat afterwards. And if we didn't, well, we'd have to go looking again the next day. There was no point in walking around in the dark. So we'd be warm again in a couple of hours, hopefully. Unless, of course, we were dead. I tried not to think about that possibility too much, but reality was literally blowing me in the face.

I went to walk next to Henry, hoping for a little distraction. "Cold, isn't it?" I said, shouting to make myself heard over the loud blowing of the wind. Henry just nodded, his hands stuffed deeply inside his coat pockets. "So, what do you think will happen once we find the Grinch?" I asked him. He shrugged. He didn't seem in a very talkative mood. I tried to study his face, to see if his expression gave anything away, but a scarf covered most of his face.

"Is something wrong?" I said, reaching out a gloved hand towards him. My hand was left hanging in the air for a solid minute, until finally Henry took it. He mumbled something, but I couldn't make out the words. "Sorry, what did you say? It's really hard to hear you." I yelled. Henry seemed to look around before he spoke again. We were walking a good distance from the others, who were walking in their separate twos and threes.

"My moms." He said, and I was glad he was finally telling me what was bothering him. "They almost didn't let me come along. We had a huge fight about it." "I'm sorry." I said honestly. I knew how Henry felt about being left out when it came to possibly dangerous quests. I understood that his parents wanted to protect him, though. As much as I was worried about myself, I was also worried about Henry. At least he had a bit more experience.

"I wish they'd realise that I'm not a little kid anymore. They don't have to protect me all the time. I can take care of myself. And besides, I want to help them. I want to be a hero, too." That, I was familiar with. Almost anyone would want that. To be a hero; to do something to make the world a better place. I myself had sometimes struggled with that; that helpless feeling of wanting to do something good, but not knowing how or what.

I squeezed his hand. "They let you eventually, didn't they? You're here now. There's your chance." He nodded, and I could tell that he was at least a bit cheered up. "And besides, there's no point in leaving you behind on the boat." I told him. "The Grinch could notice it and come over, and then you'd be all by yourself. You wouldn't be safer back at the boat." "I know." Henry said.

"Race you!" I yelled, as I took off towards where the others were starting to gather. We blasted through the snow, white clouds forming behind us. The snow made for heavy running, and I almost tripped a couple of times, but luckily, I managed to recover my balance. When we arrived, I bent over, leaning my hands on my knees. Henry and I laughed silently, next to each other. Luckily, we couldn't be heard over the wind; I didn't want Regina to think that we were too childish to go on a quest like this.

Pretty soon, though, our laughter was over, as things started to get serious again. "Here's the plan." Annabeth said frankly. She stood in front of the group, a natural leader and strategic. I marvelled over the fact that it was me the plans were meant for; that she was actually here in the flesh. I knew that with Annabeth, we'd be in good hands. She was one of the best, smartest children of Athena, and that meant a lot.

"We've arrived at our first square. I'm going to be holding the map, and crossing off the squares we pass. In order to cover as much ground as we possibly can, we'll fan out across the width of the square. If you encounter anything suspicious, please wave your hands, and I'll be there as quickly as possible." She told us. "Oh, and everyone will get one set of fireworks. If you run into anything dangerous, or if something happens, set them off. They'll send up red sparks and alert everyone to your position, and we'll come over immediately. Please, be careful. Don't take any unnecessary risks; we're just scouting the area."

As she handed out the fireworks, my worry set in properly. There wasn't much I could do to defend myself. All I had was the knife in my backpack, and I wasn't very good with it. My aim was rubbish, and I doubted I was strong enough to wrestle any opponent. I sighed. I would just have to rely on everyone else. I would be fine, I told myself. "Good luck!" Henry mouthed to me as Annabeth positioned us all along the width of the square. I wished I could've kissed him; it might have been my last chance to do so.

I scolded myself mentally for my pessimism. Worrying wouldn't do me any good, I'd just be out of my mind by the time we actually found the Grinch. I wouldn't be of use to anyone if I was paralysed with fear.

But there was a lot of time to think about all of the possible disastrous outcomes, as I ploughed through the snow, trying my best to walk in a straight line and stay on course. We covered what must've been several squares on the map, without any disturbances. I was beginning to be slightly bored. My feet hurt, my face was cold, and there wasn't anything interesting to look at for miles.

I watched the others, but they weren't more than dots from where I stood. The distance between us wasn't that great, but the sky was darkening quickly. I hoped that soon, someone would suggest we turned around and headed back to the boat. I'd had more than enough adventure for one day, that was for sure.

I was contemplating suggesting a turn-around myself, when suddenly, to my right, red sparks flew up into the sky. The fireworks! Someone was in trouble. I gasped, but I didn't hesitate as I took off running in that direction. I went as fast as the heavy snow would allow, actually stumbling once. I fell into the snow, face forward, but I got up again quickly. I could barely feel my face anymore; the icy wind combined with the wetness of the snow had made it freeze over.

But I didn't run any slower because of it. I was too worried for that. What if something had happened to Annabeth? Or worse, Henry? I didn't allow myself to dwell on that possibility, but I ran faster anyway. I could see where the others were gathered, in a small circle. I couldn't see what they were doing. They appeared to be fighting something on the ground, some running around frantically.

As I ran closer, I could finally start to make out what was happening. Regina was walking up and down frantically, and it seemed everyone was steering clear of her. I could see that Henry was standing at her side, obviously trying to calm her down. I felt relief wash over me. It wasn't him. Nothing had happened to Henry. I was so glad, that when I arrived where the others were standing, I crashed into him and crushed him in a hug. For the moment, I didn't care that Regina was standing right next to us, and that everyone could see us. "You're fine." I breathed. I felt him nod into my hair. He let me hug him for a little while, then gently pried my arms off of him.

"It's mom." He said gravely, as we turned around to look at whatever it was the others were looking at. And that was when I saw it. I had assumed the thing on the ground was what they'd been fighting, but it was something else entirely. I sucked in a sharp breath.

It was Emma. She was clawing frantically at the edges of a hole in the ice, as she struggled to keep her head above the water. Everyone was steering clear of the hole, clearly afraid the edges would crumble if it had to bear any more weight. A wave of hope went through our little group, as she got her forearms onto the ice securely and started to hoist herself up onto the snow. But then, the ice crumbled again. I could practically feel Regina's despair. She was pacing up and down, a safe distance from the water. She was at her wit's end, I could tell.

"What do we do?" I asked, hoping that someone would have a suggestion. "If we knew, we'd be doing it already, wouldn't we?" Regina snapped at me, and I could tell from her expression that she was struggling to keep it together. As much as she pretended to be a stone-hearted, uncaring woman, I knew she really cared about Emma. And losing Emma, after having lost everyone else, would be too much for her to bear, I knew. So we had to do something, I decided. "Henry?" I called, and he came over to me. "Could you please distract Regina? I'm going to try and save Emma, but I don't want your mom to get in the way." A spark of hope lit up Henry's face, and he nodded. "Can be done." He told me, and walked over to Regina.

As they walked off, Regina clearly not convinced, I clapped my hands. "Time to get Emma out." I said. "Does anyone have any rope?" Luckily, Sirius turned out to be wearing a belt. It wasn't long, but it was sturdy. I tied a loop at the end of the belt, so Emma could hook her arms through it and hold on. I realised that from where we were standing, we had no hope of the belt reaching her. Someone would have to go out on the ice and get closer.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10 Lead the Way

"I'm going to try and get closer to her." I announced. "You should lie down on the ice, flat on your belly. That way your weight will be distributed as evenly as possible." Annabeth told me, and I nodded. I'd already known this; I'd been ice-skating out on a lake plenty of times and my dad had always warned me about what to do.

And so I gathered all of my courage, and lay down on the ice as close to the hole as I dared to walk. I tried to throw the belt, but it didn't reach the hole. I'd have to get closer. I sighed. "Can someone please hold my leg?" I called out, and someone did indeed grab my leg. It would only be worse if I fell in myself; then there would be two of us to rescue. I reached out my arms, and crawled closer to the hole. I moved a few inches at a time, then waited tensely to see whether the ice wouldn't break. I wasn't as heavy as Emma, but the ice was already cracked.

Then, when it finally seemed I was close enough, I reached out and grabbed the belt. As I threw it to the hole, I was terrified of falling in. The cold was already bad enough; I could only imagine what it would be like to swim in the freezing water. Luckily, Emma got a hold of the belt quite quickly. There had already been many horror scenarios in my mind, where she failed to grab on. But none of that happened; she hooked her hands through the loop and got a hold of it. I was glad I'd though to make the loop; I doubted she'd be able to hold on otherwise. I could see her hands shaking as it was.

I breathed out a sigh of relief when she caught the belt, but then I realised something. I'd made a loop on Emma's side of the belt, but not mine. How would I hold on now? My hands were cold, and my gloves were slippery with the snow. What if I couldn't pull her out? Then it would be my fault. I shuddered.

I took off my gloves, one at a time. My hands were shaking from the cold, but at least I'd have a better grip. I hooked both of my hands around the belt. There was not enough room to make a loop; and besides, I doubted I'd be able to. I couldn't feel my hands at all anymore. I would just have to hold on as best as I could.

I took a deep breath, then readied myself. "Pull!" I shouted out, my voice hoarse. Almost immediately, I could feel someone tugging on my leg. I was pulled to the right, but luckily, someone had the presence of mind to hold on to my other leg as well. I found it difficult to hold on to the belt. Emma wasn't that heavy, but my hands were frozen and my muscles were cramping. My friends had always wondered at my supreme arm strength; I could hold on to anything and they wouldn't be able to pry my fingers off, as much as they tried.

Thinking about my friends gave me strength, and I tightened my muscles. We _had_ to get her out. I didn't think we would manage to do this a second time. I held on to the belt with both hands, the leather carving into my hands sharply. I ignored the pain; I could barely feel it through the cold anyway.

And it payed off. Slowly but surely, Emma was pulled out of the water. There was one tense moment when we heard the ice crack, but nothing happened, and so we just kept pulling. Emma let out soft moans as her face, fingers, legs and sides were pulled across the sharp edges, but she seemed barely conscious. And then, finally, she was on solid ground again.

I collapsed into the snow, spent, as the others rushed towards her. My eyes fell closed, so I didn't see what was happening. I could hear a lot of commotion, though. There was a lot of worry about frostbite. The cold that Emma had suffered was unimaginable, and none of us had any idea how to help her.

"If she's undressed, she'll warm up more quickly." I heard Annabeth say, and Regina didn't even argue. She was probably too shaken from previous events. I didn't follow any of the conversation after that; I was too tired. I woke up to the feeling of a warm hand on my cheek. I hadn't even realised I'd fallen asleep.

"Aïcha?" I heard, and the concern in Henry's voice was obvious. "Wake up, please. Wake up!" He said urgently. I wanted to open my eyes, to tell him he shouldn't be worried, but my eyelids felt so heavy. And I couldn't even feel the rest of my body. "She's undercooled." I could hear someone say. Annabeth. "She spent too much time in the cold." "Look at her hands!" I heard Henry say, aghast. Annabeth sucked in a sharp breath. I wanted to laugh. My hands? There was nothing wrong with my hands. My hands were fine.

Henry's warm hands started stroking my face, and slowly, my eyes fluttered open. "Henry?" I croaked. "You're awake!" He said, and the warmth and sweetness in his voice almost made me tear up. I was so terribly tired! I didn't usually get this emotional. He almost stopped stroking my face, but didn't, in the end. I was glad. His warm, soft hands were the only thing keeping me in reality.

I stared into his lovely brown eyes, and he didn't look away. "I really like you." I confessed. He raised his eyebrows, like he was saying "And you thought this was the time to tell me?". "You're tired." He said, comfortingly, reasonably. "I know." I said, not seeing the point in denying that fact. "You're not thinking straight." "And that's where you're wrong." I said, the reasonable one now. "I mean it." I insisted. Henry looked like he would argue, but decided to give in and just enjoy this tired version of me. "I really like you too." He told me. I grinned, but the movement felt strange on my face. "Yeah?" "Yeah."

I was so busy looking at Henry lovingly, that I didn't notice Regina walking up to us until she was standing over me. I gulped. She was probably here to tell me and Henry off, to tell us we shouldn't be together. I couldn't take that, not right now. "You're a very brave young girl." Regina told me quietly. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Regina was saying I was brave? I had to be dreaming again. "Thank you. You saved Emma's life, and I'm forever indebted to you." "You're-you're welcome." Was all I could stammer out. I knew how much effort it cost her. She nodded, and looked down at my hands.

"I'll ask someone to come over with a first aid kit." She said, motioning to my hands. She walked away, clearly glad for an excuse to leave. I looked down at my hands myself. I had a few nasty cuts from the belt, and my hands were a strange colour from the cold. The wounds looked awful, but I still couldn't feel them.

"She means it." Henry said. "You know how difficult it was for her to tell you that." "I know." I told him. "It's okay. I had to do something; I couldn't just stand around and watch." "Thank you." Henry told me honestly. "That really meant a lot to us. I wouldn't ever want to lose Emma. She's my mum. But think what it would've done to my other mom. Emma truly does mean a lot to her, although she doesn't always show it. I don't know what it would've done to her if she were to lose her." "It was no trouble." I told him honestly. It had been my decision, and I didn't regret it.

Annabeth bandaged my hands. I knew she had a lot of experience taking care of battle wounds, so I was being treated by the best. When the antiseptic was dropped into my wounds, the feeling started to slowly return to my hands. I bit on my lip to keep from whimpering. It really did hurt a lot, now that I could feel my hands again.

Half an hour later, we were on our way again. Emma had insisted she was fine, and so had I. We'd decided to cover two more squares, then call it a day. I was walking through the snow again, the numbness gone from my body entirely. In its stead there was an almost painful alertness. I watched my surroundings, and the others, carefully. And so I was the first one to notice when Percy suddenly bent over.

My first thought was that he'd tripped, but as soon as he recovered, he started waving his hands frantically. I ran towards him, not as quickly as I'd run before. I had no intention of tripping and falling into the snow again. I was cold enough as it was.

Percy waited until we were all standing around him to speak. "I can sense him. The Grinch." He said, and I could feel a wave of shock go through our group. "How do you know it's the Grinch?" Regina asked. She seemed to have recovered some of her confidence. "There's a giant spot in the water that feels like it's filled with unhappiness. I can feel all of the sea animals are avoiding it." He said. I knew that could only be the Grinch. So, we'd found him. We'd come here looking for him, and we'd found him. It was time to end this, once and for all.

"Lead the way." Emma said resolutely. I could feel her willpower; to decide that we were going to go ahead, when she had to be feeling absolutely awful. I wasn't feeling well myself, and I'd suffered much less than she had. I admired her strength and resilience.

Percy nodded, and did as she asked. He started to walk in one direction, and the rest of us followed. Everyone was strangely quiet; we were all caught up in our own worries. "Remember, we're just scouting the perimeter now. We're going to observe the Grinch, gather information. We're not going to attack just yet, so it's important to be inconspicuous." Annabeth told us, and we nodded.

We walked quickly for more than half an hour; the location appeared to be miles away. I was impressed that Percy had been able to sense it from such a distance. So far, the two demigods seemed to be the only useful ones on our quest. "Stop!" Percy suddenly whispered, and we all did as he said. He crouched down, and we followed his example. "It's here." He whispered. "Here?" Sirius asked. "There's nothing." Percy shrugged. "I'm sure of it. He must be hiding somehow." "A magical barrier." Regina said quietly. "For all we know, he's been watching us walk around all day."

"Well, how do we make it visible?" I asked. I wanted to get this thing over with. I was cold and tired. Somewhere in the back of my mind there was a slight doubt that we probably weren't fit to fight anyone, but I was too tired to focus on that. We'd just go ahead and give it our best shot. "I've got a way." Regina said, reaching into her pocket. She pulled out a vial, and I immediately realised that what was inside was probably magic.

Before anyone could ask what the stuff inside the vial did, she'd already thrown it onto the snow. But before it hit the snow, it hit something else.

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone reading this story! I hope you're enjoying it so far. I love to read comments, so please tell me what you think!**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11 Mountain in the Snow

Slowly, a mountain appeared right in front of us. It looked terribly out of place, right there in the snow. "Well, it looks like we found our Grinch." Emma said breathlessly. I was numb with cold; so the information didn't really process. I knew I should be terrified, but for some reason, I felt nothing. "Can you see any windows?" Annabeth whispered. Everyone shook their heads. On the one hand, this was good news. It meant that at least, the Grinch probably hadn't seen us coming. But on the other hand, we had no way of taking a look inside before we blasted our way in.

"So, what's the plan?" Sirius asked. The wizards had been strangely quiet, talking mostly amongst themselves. Now that this strange structure had suddenly appeared on the icy plains in front of us, it all seemed very real. If they'd still had any doubt before we got here, it was gone now. We were on a mission. And we _would_ save the world, whatever it took.

"Let's first try to make a hole inside the wall. If we succeed, we'll still be able to take a look and devise a battle strategy. If we don't succeed, we'll just have to make our way inside. We don't have a choice. We'll still have the element of surprise." Annabeth told us, and no one argued. It sounded like the most logical plan.

Annabeth took out her knife, and set the tip to the stone. The outside layer she could scrape off easily, but the stone walls wouldn't budge. After ten minutes of trying, all there was to show for her effort were a few scratches on the stone wall. Annabeth sighed. "Time for plan B." I gulped. A few minutes ago, plan B had sounded reasonable, but I was seriously doubting it by now. We would just head inside and try to defeat the monster. It was hardly a plan, and besides, we didn't know if the Grinch had any evil minions inside.

"Percy and I will head in first, and Emma and Regina can cover the rear. Sirius, Remus and James will cover the flank. Henry and Aïcha will be in the middle, protected on each side." I would have protested, but fear had made it impossible for me to speak. And besides; I didn't really want to be in the centre of the fighting. I couldn't actually do anything. "Percy and I will fight with our weapons, and Percy will try to use the water to his advantage. What will the rest do?" Annabeth asked. I was wondering the same thing; none of the others had used any magic on the trip so far.

Regina patted her pocket. "I have a few surprises left." She said confidently, and I realised she had taken more than one vial with her. "And we will use magic." James said, all serious now. "We've refrained from doing so up until now, since it's forbidden to do magic in front of muggles. But it is allowed in life-threatening situations, which the next moments will undoubtedly qualify as." Lupin said gravely.

The reassurance made me feel a bit better, since I knew what their magic could do. They were probably sixth years already, and that meant they had plenty of magical knowledge. We were in good hands.

Neither I nor Henry responded to Annabeth's question. She clearly didn't mean us, since she'd already directed us to the centre of our little formation. "Ready?" Annabeth asked, and we all nodded. Regina walked up to the stone walls with another vial in her hand, and threw its contents onto the wall. She walked back quickly to her position at the back of the group, as the stone slowly started to melt away.

The hole the potion had created was big enough for all of us to fit through side by side. I peered at the inside of the cave, reaching up onto my toes to look over Annabeth's head. The interior was bare; there was a rickety bed on the left side of the room, and a quarter of the room was sectioned off with a black curtain. The room was much less smaller than it had seemed from the outside.

I couldn't see the Grinch anywhere, so I assumed he was somewhere behind the partition. We still had the element of surprise, it seemed. Our entrance hadn't made much noise, the potion had done it's work soundlessly. We stood just inside the room, not breaking formation. I could see the others were looking around the room just like I was. I saw Regina walk to the front of the group quietly. I smiled. That was quite characteristic. I hadn't expected her to be content with her position at the back of the group.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are!" Regina said with her melodious voice. She was going into Evil Queen mode, I could tell. And the Evil Queen had always had a flair for theatrics. I could picture Annabeth's disapproving expression; theatrics were definitely not her style. But it was, after all, mostly Regina and Emma's quest.

I could hear some shuffling behind the curtain. The suspense built up as the Grinch took his time. There was no doubt he'd heard us; whatever he was doing now couldn't be anything good. The fear was making me nauseous. Who did I think I was, coming here to defeat some villain? Here he was, ready to destroy the world, and all I had to stop him was a knife that I couldn't even fight with. If not for the paralysing fear, I would've turned around and ran right then.

Henry grabbed my hand, and I held on to it for dear life. Then, a long, green finger curled around the screen. I squeaked quietly. The curtain was pulled back then, and there he stood. Right in front of us. The Grinch was undoubtedly the ugliest, most evil, awful, scary creature I'd ever seen. He looked exactly the way he did in the movies, but he radiated fear. There was none of the laughable cartoonishness. This was a man who had suffered, and turned his suffering into madness. Madness that planned on destroying the world.

"Well, well, well. Look who we have here! Visitors! How nice of you to come over and visit the poor, poor Grinch." He said mockingly. His voice caused goose bumps on my arms. Compared to this, Regina's theatrics were nothing. This was actual, full on madness. Who did we think we were, coming here?

"We know about your evil plan. And we're here to stop you." Annabeth told him. Her voice was strong; she was used to dangerous fights. "As you can see, you're vastly outnumbered. So we're giving you a choice. Free the Christmas spirit, and we'll leave you alone. Refuse to do so, and we'll destroy you." Somehow, this calm and rational speech was much more scary than the crazy theatrics. I was glad that we had Annabeth on our side.

The Grinch put a finger to his lips, pretending to consider. He mumbled something. Clearly, he was talking to himself. He was truly insane. Then he cackled. "Tempting offer. But I think I'm going to pass up." He said, and without warning, a beam of green light was shot from his hand. "Protego!" James yelled, and the beam of light was stopped. I breathed a sigh of relief. The Grinch seemed hardly bothered that we'd blocked him so easily. The three wizards all had their wands at the ready as a new coil of green light spun from the Grinch's hands. This one, however, was not directed at us directly. It landed on the ground next to him and formed a cloud there. We all waited nervously as the smoke shifted around.

Then, the smoke slowly cleared. And standing on the ground next to the Grinch was a small army of Santa Clauses. If anyone had told me they could create and army out of Santa Clauses, I would've told them it was impossible. It was hard to picture the friendly, big-bellied, bearded, grandfatherly man as a soldier. But the Santas the Grinch had just created looked downright evil. They growled menacingly as they held clubs twice their size. I couldn't remember the Grinch being able to do something like that. Wherever he'd spent his time between the movie and now, well, it hadn't done him any good.

"Ho ho ho!" The Grinch bellied sarcastically, and the Santa Clauses stormed towards us. They split up, each one targeting someone else. Everyone formed a protective circle around me and Henry. I couldn't see anything from there; I was pressed to Henry back-to-back, and in front of me Regina and Sirius were blocking my view. I could hear everyone was fighting ferociously. I heard the lid pop off of several of Regina's vials, and I could hear the wizards casting spells. I found Henry's hands behind my back, and held them tightly. Henry squeezed my hands, as if to tell me everything was okay.

Suddenly, I heard more commotion. It wasn't just the sound of the fighting with the Santas anymore; it was something else. "What is that?" I shouted to Henry, trying to make myself heard over the noise. I didn't get a response, though. Then, all at once, the circle around us broke. Regina stumbled forward, and I felt Henry pull away. I looked around frantically, but I couldn't tell what was happening. Then, the Grinch and I locked eyes. Slowly, his mouth widened in a crazy grin, and he reached out his arm. I wished that someone would block him, but everyone else seemed to be busy fighting off their own attackers.

Time seemed to slow down as a beam of green light shot out from the Grinch's hand. My chest tightened in fear, but the beam wasn't headed for me. I broke eye contact with the Grinch just in time to see the beam hit Henry. "No!" I shouted, and surged forward, to jump in front of Henry. But it was too late; the beam had hit Henry square in the chest. He staggered, and as I watched, his arms stretched and turned into tree branches. As his head shot upward, I realised what was happening. The Grinch was turning Henry into a Christmas tree!

"Henry!" I shouted. "Don't be the Daphne to my Apollo!" Later, I'd wondered why this piece of classical mythology had suddenly sprung to mind, but at the moment, I was too overcome with anger. Within seconds, there was a full grown Christmas tree standing in the middle of the cave.

I looked over at the Grinch, who was laughing uncontrollably. "You did this!" I shouted as my vision turned red with fury. Gone was my fear. All I wanted in that moment was to kill the Grinch. To pull off his ugly green head. I lunged towards him, not even bothering to pull out my knife. I wasn't any good with it anyway.

My fists collided painfully with the Grinch's head, and for a moment, the monster was frozen in shock. I pulled back my hand to punch him again, but the Grinch had quickly come to his senses. He picked me up like a ragdoll, and threw me across the room. My head hit the stone wall with a smack, and my vision went black.

 **A/N: I hope you had a wonderful Christmas! I would love if you left me a comment as a present ;)**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: I'm so sorry it took me so long to upload! I was on vacation, and then I came down with an awful cold. But here it is!**

When I woke up again, I thought at first that I was dreaming. I thought I could hear Henry talking nearby, but that wasn't possible. Henry had been turned into a Christmas tree. I squeezed my eyes shut, remembering. I didn't feel like opening my eyes at all. A world without Henry in it wasn't worth looking at. I mentally rolled my eyes at myself for being so melodramatic. But it wasn't my fault; I'd taken quite a hit to the head. As I thought about that, my head started throbbing. After a few seconds had passed, the pain had gotten so intense I had stopped believing it was a dream, even though I could hear Henry talking.

I decided to open my eyes. The light hurt my eyes, which made my head hurt. It was quite dark inside, but it was still too bright for me. I blinked rapidly until my eyes adjusted. When they finally did, I could see Henry standing over me. I had a strange sense of deja vu. I hoped the rest of our relationship wouldn't all be like that: me getting knocked out and waking up to his concerned face. I didn't mind the concern; it was kind of sweet. But the knocked out part was not a habit I wanted to cultivate.

"Hey." Henry said to me, softly. Whoever it was he'd been talking to was gone now. I didn't feel like looking around the room to see what the others were doing. For now, Henry was enough. "You're not a Christmas tree." I croaked, my voice sore. Again. Henry laughed. "You wake up after being passed out for three hours, and the first thing you say is that?" "Three hours?" I said disbelievingly. Henry nodded. "We tried waking you up, but in the end Annabeth decided it would be best for you to just sleep it off." I was too tired to argue. They should have waken me up, though. I could've helped in some way.

"Anyway, mom still had a magic vial left. The potion inside returned me to my original state, so here I am." He grinned. He seemed very happy. "Well, what about the Grinch?" I asked. Henry's smile faltered. "We took care of him." Henry said. I didn't get why he seemed so unhappy. That had been our goal, right? "You helped us, actually. You distracted him for a moment with your crazy fight, and that enabled everyone to take him out." I beamed. I hadn't really thought about the long term effects of my rash actions, but I was glad I'd been able to help out.

"Well, what's the problem, then?" I asked. Henry tried to smile brightly, but failed. "Problem? There is no problem. What makes you think there's a problem?" I looked at him pointedly. "Don't lie to me, Mr. Mills. Spill it." Henry rolled his eyes at my insistence, but he gave in. "Well, we did take care of the Grinch. That part was true. But…" He hesitated. "Come on!" I said, getting worried. Why wasn't he telling me? "Well, it didn't exactly solve the problem. See, we thought that if we destroyed the Grinch, the Christmas spirit would be released. But it's not that simple, it turns out." "What?" I said, attempting to get up from the bed they'd laid me down on. Henry rolled his eyes. "See, that's why I didn't want to tell you. I knew you'd overreact. Relax." He said, pushing me back onto the bed. I was glad; my head was spinning. I probably had a concussion.

"If you promise to lie still, I'll tell you the rest." Henry said sternly. I rolled my eyes, but did as he said. "Good girl. Since you've been unconscious for a while, we had plenty of time to analyse the problem. Or, more accurately, search this place." At that, I almost attempted to get up again, but luckily I remembered my promise to Henry just in time. He waited until I'd relaxed to continue telling me.

"We found the Christmas spirit." At that, I couldn't stop myself. I let out an excited squeak. Henry smiled at me good-naturedly. He'd already gotten used to my constant excitement, and he didn't seem to mind it. I was glad. I wasn't going to stop acting like myself just because off some boy. "But." "Why does there have to be a but?" I whined. Henry shrugged, like he didn't know the answer either. "But it's trapped in a bottle. Magically trapped. I don't know what the Grinch did to that bottle, but neither mom and her magic vials nor the wizards can get him out. They've tried everything, but nothing's working." I groaned. Seconds ago, I'd been ready to storm back there and do anything, but I was very tired suddenly. I laid my head back on my pillow.

I motioned over to Henry. "Come lie down next to me." I mumbled. I couldn't see his face, since I'd already closed my eyes, but I imagined he was looking over to Regina. I knew this probably wasn't the greatest idea; Regina would almost certainly not approve of it. But I was exhausted, and all I wanted for now was to fall asleep again, Henry lying next to me. The Christmas spirit could wait, for now. And anyway, there wasn't much either of us could do. Everyone else would try their best.

Henry seemed to come to the same conclusion I had, since I felt him lie down on top of the covers next to me. I could feel his weight dipping the mattress. I reached out my hand, and he took it. I fell asleep almost immediately as his fingers softly stroked my hand.

When I woke up again, it was quiet in the cave. It was also even darker than it had been before; so I realised it had to be night-time. Everyone else had probably also gone to sleep. I could sense that Henry was still lying on the bed next to me; but our hands had fallen apart sometime during the night.

I rolled around to find a comfortable position. "Aïcha?" Henry whispered. "You're awake?" I asked. "Clearly." Henry whispered, and I huffed. "Where's everyone?" I asked him. He'd probably stayed awake longer than I had. "Sleeping. On the floor. You should've heard Sirius and James! They were complaining as if they were royalty." I laughed. Despite their arrogance, they were quite lovable. But I doubted I would've thought so if I hadn't heard of them before. They were a bit too loud and obnoxious for my liking.

"Did they find out anything about the Christmas spirit?" I whispered, turning so I could look at Henry. I was glad it was too dark to see; I was certain I was blushing. Our faces were inches apart. He shook his head. "They tried everything. Annabeth even tried to connect to some sort of emergency network to try searching the internet, but it didn't work. No one has any idea how we're going to get it out."

I sighed. If they couldn't figure it out, who could? It was really too bad Sherlock hadn't come along. He would've been able to come up with a solution; I was certain. But we could try. There was always hope. "Let's go through this once again. The spirit is trapped inside a bottle, you said?" "Yeah." Henry replied. I could tell he didn't see the point in talking about this again, but he let me have my way anyway. "And we can't get him out. None of the spells have worked, and whatever way we try to destroy the bottle, well, it doesn't work. I don't know how we're going to get to it from outside."

"Outside!" I exclaimed, covering my mouth quickly in case anyone had heard us. An idea was starting to form in my head. "We can't get to it from the outside. But maybe… maybe we've been going about this the wrong way." "What is it?" Henry asked excitedly. I could hear his adventurous nature appear again. He'd seemed bummed before, but the slightest spark of hope was enough to get him back on board. It was one of the things I liked about him.

"Well, they've tried destroying the bottle from the outside. That didn't work, correct?" Henry nodded eagerly. "But what if… What if we were able to destroy it from the inside?" "From the inside? But we can't get the lid off, either." I nodded slowly, a plan taking shape. "But maybe we don't need to. You know how sometimes glass bottles break in the freezer? When the contents are frozen, they expand. The pressure from the inside builds." "And the glass breaks." Henry said, catching on slowly. "Exactly. So I thought, if the Christmas spirit grows, it expands. And that might be enough to break the bottle." "That's a good idea!" Henry said enthusiastically.

"Not a very clear idea, though. We've only got two more days till Christmas Eve. That's not a lot of time. And anyway, make the Christmas spirit grow? That's not much of a plan." I said, already rattling off all of the faults in my plan. "That's true." Henry said contemplatively. "But it's a plan. And so far, it's the only plan we've got. It'll have to do." I nodded slowly.

"Well, what do you propose?" I asked. "I say we take the boat and go spread Christmas spirit." I laughed. Henry's enthusiasm had dipped for a moment when it had seemed there was no solution, but as soon as there was something of a plan, he was relentless. "Should we wake up the others?" I whispered. He shook his head. "It's our turn to be heroes now." I wanted to argue. Being heroes sounded tempting, but we didn't have any idea what we were doing. We were just two kids, after all. But Henry had already gotten up quietly, and was rummaging around.

I thought about waking up the others anyway, but I didn't want to do that to Henry. I knew how he felt, always getting left behind. He deserved a chance to, like he'd said, be a hero. Who was I to stop him? And anyway, it was just spreading a little Christmas spirit. It was hardly dangerous.

I sat up slowly, swinging my legs over the edge off the bed. I waited for the dizziness to leave, then I stood up. The left side of my head was still a bit tender, and my head ached all over. All I wanted was to lie in bed and sleep while the others solved our problems. But it was time to take matters into our own hands now. We would save Christmas, me and Henry. We'd find a way. Heroes always did.

"Ready to go?" Henry said quietly. I had only taken a few steps, but I felt slightly better than I had before. "Yes." I whispered back, and he led me out of the cave into the snow. I'd kept on my coat; but the cold was even worse now that I'd been inside for a little while. We walked a little ways in the dark, until we'd created some distance between us and the cave. Then, Henry clicked on the flashlight. In its light, I could see he'd taken two more flashlights, and the map. I was glad. I didn't think we'd be able to find the boat without it; the North Pole looked the same everywhere.

"I left a note for my moms." He said, whispering even though we were a safe distance from the Grinch's lair. I took his hand to comfort him. It had been his idea to go without them; but I could tell he was nervous anyway. I was too; but I wasn't leaving behind my parents the way he was. I hoped they wouldn't be too angry with me when we got back. I wasn't sure I could handle the Evil Queen.

I squeezed his hand, and we started walking. It took us hours, switching the map and the flashlight between the two of us. There weren't any landmarks on the North Pole to judge our position by, so it was tough going, even with the map. Finally, we reached the boat. Dawn hadn't set in yet; it'd take hours before the sun rose over here. I hoped the others hadn't woken up yet; I was certain they would come and try to stop us.


End file.
